Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani
1952 – ? Qatari Emir of Qatar
Emir who took power in Qatar in a 1995 coup and used its gas wealth to launch Al Jazeera and a global sovereign investment fund.
- Religion
- Sunni Muslim
- Affiliations
- House of Al Thani, Qatar Investment Authority
Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani took power in Qatar in 1995 by deposing his father while the emir was abroad. He turned the small state's enormous natural gas reserves into outsized global influence, funding the Al Jazeera satellite network in 1996 and building the Qatar Investment Authority into a major buyer of prized foreign assets. He pursued an assertive and sometimes contrarian foreign policy for such a small country, and abdicated in favor of his son in 2013.
In the timeline
- 1996 Launch of Al Jazeera the emir who funded the network
- 2005 Founding of the Qatar Investment Authority the emir who created the fund