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Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (Arabic: خليفة بن زايد بن سلطان آل نهيان; referred to as Sheikh Khalifa) is the President of the United Arab Emirates, the Emir of Abu Dhabi and the Supreme Commander of the Union Defence Force.
Sheikh Khalifa succeeded his father, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, as Emir of Abu Dhabi on 2 November 2004 and became the President of the Federation the next day. As Crown Prince, he had already been acting as president since the late 1990s while his father was facing health problems.[citation needed] Sheikh Khalifa is also chairman of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which manages $875 billion in assets, the largest amount managed by a nation's head of state in the world. Collectively, the Al Nahyan family is believed to hold a fortune of $150 billion.
On 4 January 2010, the world's tallest man-made structure, originally known as Burj Dubai, was renamed the Burj Khalifa in honor of the Sheikh. |
