Abdullah Gül

H.E. Abdullah Gül was the 11th president of the Republic of Turkey from 2007 to 2014. He became prime minister and formed the 58th government on November 18, 2002. From 2003 to 2007, he served as deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs in the 59thgovernment. From 1991 to 1995, H.E. Gül was a member of the Planning and Budget Committee and from 1995 to 2001 he was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. He was also a member of the Turkish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from 1991 to 2001 and a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from 2001 to 2002. He was spokesperson and minister of state in the 54th government formed in 1996. He pioneered the reformist movement in the Virtue Party and ran for its leadership in 2000. He was one of the founders of the Justice and Development Party in 2001 and became its first prime minister in 2002.

Before entering politics, he worked at the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Jeddah between 1983 and 1991, after receiving his Ph.D. from Istanbul University in 1983. H.E. Gül was awarded the "Pro merito Medal" and the title of "Permanent Honorary Member" in 2002 for his 10 years of valuable work in the PACE. He received the 2010 Chatham House Statesman of the Year Award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

He is currently the honorary chairman of the Abdullah Gül University Foundation and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Oxford University Islamic Studies Centre.