Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum

Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum (born 1 December 1958) is an Emirati businessman and official of Dubai's ruling family, chairman and CEO of the Emirates Group since the airline's launch in 1985 and president of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority. He is the youngest son of Dubai's former ruler Saeed bin Maktoum Al Maktoum and an uncle of Dubai's current ruler, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and has been called the man who put Dubai on the global aviation map. ^{1 2}

Ahmed was born on 1 December 1958 in Dubai — the Arabic article's lead gives the year as 1957, against its own categories, the English article and Wikidata — the youngest son of Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Hasher Al Maktoum, Dubai's former ruler, and the only child of his father's second wife, Fatima bint Ahmed bin Suliman. ^{1 3} He is a half-brother of the former ruler Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum and an uncle of the current ruler, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and he holds a degree in political science from the University of Denver. ¹ His marriages are reported as follows: in 2007 he married the Egyptian socialite Nivin El-Gamal in an Islamic ceremony in a London flat, which he denied had taken place; a London court accepted that the ceremony had occurred but that it was not a valid marriage under English law, and she bore their son Saeed. He later married Sheikha Mona, a cousin, in 2008, and Moza bint Hamdan Al Malik Al Shehi in 2019, with whom he had a son, Mohammed, in November 2020. ^{1 3}

Ahmed's aviation career began in 1985, when he was appointed president of Dubai's Department of Civil Aviation; Emirates, the national carrier, was launched at the same time with him as chairman, and he has been chairman and CEO of the Emirates Airline and Group since. ¹ He is also president of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, chairman of Dubai Airports, Dubai Holding and Dubai World, second vice chairman of Dubai's Executive Council, a board member of the Investment Corporation of Dubai, chairman of the Dubai Free Zone Council and chancellor of the British University in Dubai. ¹ His honours include the Living Legends of Aviation entrepreneur award (2007), Ernst & Young's UAE Entrepreneur of the Year (2011), an honorary degree from City University London (2013) and an honorary KBE (2013), and Gulf Business listed him among the top 100 most powerful Arabs from 2013 to 2021. ¹

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