H.E. Eng. Hussain I. Al Hammadi

H.E. Eng. Hussain Ibrahim Al Hammadi is Minister of Education for the UAE, and Chairman and CEO of the Emirates Advanced Investments Group of companies. He was appointed Minister of Education in 2014 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

He established EAI in Dubai in 2006 as a business development and investment vehicle, whose strategy is to explore, create and realize investment initiatives in the UAE and internationally and contribute to the economic development of UAE. A number of subsidiaries and high profile joint ventures now exist, spanning diverse sectors such as Aerospace and Defense, Healthcare Management, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Leadership Development.

Under his leadership, EAI seeks to leverage EAI’s relationships with world technology leaders to develop international educational initiatives with UAE Educational and Research institutions to provide access to leading edge technologies and expertise and create depth in the UAE knowledge economy.

In addition to his position as a Trustee of AGUSTAR he is also the Chairman of the Institute of Applied Technology (IAT), an academic institution of 4,270 students, which is developing an outstanding career-based educational system, supported by the Dubai Government. It would not be an overstatement so say that Mr. Al Hammadi is the ‘father’ of Career Technical Education (CTE) in the UAE.

IAT has developed under his direction into an internationally distinctive system of secondary CTE-based education, comprising 5 school campuses, 2 postsecondary academies and 1 college, in Applied Technologies such as aviation, nursing and logistics. At his urging, in February 2010 the five IAT secondary schools accomplished the AdvancED/SACS full accreditation for five years, his insistence on the pursuit of AdvancED/SACS accreditation being for one simple reason – it represented the highest standards and therefore the most significant recognition. IAT exemplifies Mr. Al Hammadi’s vision of academically rigorous, career-integrated education, designed to develop the UAE’s next generation of technology leaders.

He is also on the Board of Dubai Ship Building and the Dubai Emiratisation Council. Prior to establishing EAI, he was a serving officer in the UAE Armed Forces, from 1984.H.E. Eng. Hussain Ibrahim Al Hammadi lives in Dubai and is a family man with 5 children.