Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, the central governing body of the largest of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates.

He was appointed Crown Prince on 29 March 2023 by an Emiri decree issued by his father, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, in his capacity as Ruler of Abu Dhabi. On the same day, a separate Amiri decree reformed the Executive Council under his chairmanship.

His public career has moved from federal security institutions to the machinery of the Abu Dhabi Government: he joined the Executive Council in 2019, chaired the Abu Dhabi Executive Office from 2019 to 2023, and today sits on several of the emirate’s principal economic, energy and technology boards.

Sheikh Khaled is the eldest son of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who became President of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Abu Dhabi in May 2022. He is a grandson of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding President of the UAE.

Published reports give his date of birth as 8 January 1982 and his birthplace as Abu Dhabi. He belongs to the Al Nahyan family, the ruling family of Abu Dhabi.

He is married and has four children; the birth of his youngest son, Zayed, was announced in March 2025. Beyond these published facts, this biography does not discuss his private family life.

Official sources do not set out the details of Sheikh Khaled’s formal education, and this biography does not repeat unverified accounts. Some published profiles have attributed academic credentials to him that belong to another member of the family; those claims are not reproduced here.

What the public record does document is a career that began in the security institutions of the federal state. The 2016 federal decree appointing him to lead the State Security Department referred to him by the rank of Major-General, reflecting a background in the country’s uniformed services before his move into the civil leadership of Abu Dhabi.

These were earlier federal appointments. They are not his current positions.

Chairman of the State Security Department · 2016

In February 2016, a federal decree issued by the late Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, then President of the UAE, appointed Major-General Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as Chairman of the State Security Department, at the rank of minister, according to a report of the Emirates News Agency.

Deputy National Security Adviser · 2017

On 16 January 2017, a further federal decree appointed him Deputy National Security Adviser, again at the rank of minister.

The two posts are distinct and are often conflated in secondary sources. Neither describes his present office, and he is correctly identified today as Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.

Amiri Decree No. (1) of 2019, published in January 2019, named Sheikh Khaled a member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council. In the same period he was made Chairman of the Council’s Executive Committee and Vice-Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Strategic Affairs Committee.

On 7 October 2019, Amiri Decree No. (15) of 2019 appointed him Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office. Under an Executive Council resolution of September 2019, the Office was given powers to supervise and contribute to the emirate’s strategic and executive plans, to follow up on and develop government performance, to set standards of excellence for government services and to supervise the Ghadan 21 programme.

During these years, official announcements record him launching the AED5 billion Abu Dhabi IPO Fund (October 2021), the Abu Dhabi Program for Effortless Customer Experience (March 2022) and the Abu Dhabi Industrial Strategy (June 2022). He also joined the Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs (December 2020), became Chairman of the Executive Committee of the ADNOC Board of Directors (2021) and joined the board of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (March 2023).

Read about these initiatives

On 29 March 2023, the Abu Dhabi Media Office announced that the President of the UAE, in his capacity as Ruler of Abu Dhabi, had issued an Emiri decree appointing Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. The Official Gazette records the instrument as Amiri Decree No. (10) of 2023.

The appointment is an Abu Dhabi (emirate-level) decision made by the Ruler. It was announced on the same day as federal leadership appointments, which are separate decisions of the UAE’s federal institutions.

As Crown Prince, Sheikh Khaled is the designated successor within the emirate and stands alongside the Ruler in the conduct of Abu Dhabi’s affairs. He has since represented the UAE President on numerous occasions abroad.

Also on 29 March 2023, Amiri Decree No. (11) of 2023 reformed the Abu Dhabi Executive Council under the chairmanship of the Crown Prince. In the same restructuring, Dr Ahmed Mubarak Al Mazrouei became Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office — the post Sheikh Khaled had held since 2019.

The UAE Government describes the Executive Council as Abu Dhabi’s central governing organ, which assists the Ruler in carrying out his duties and powers. The emirate’s departments and municipalities operate under it, and a General Secretariat within the Executive Office supports its meetings.

Meetings chaired by Sheikh Khaled have approved the Emirati Family Growth Programme (July 2024), an AED42 billion expansion of the Liveability Strategy (September 2025) and the Healthy Living and Integrated Water strategies (November 2025).

How the Council fits in Abu Dhabi’s governance

Alongside his principal offices, Sheikh Khaled holds a number of strategic board roles documented by the Abu Dhabi Media Office:

• Member of the Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs (since December 2020).
• Chairman of the Executive Committee of the ADNOC Board of Directors.
• Member of the board of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (since March 2023).
• Chairman of the Emirates Genome Council.
• Chairman of the board of the Advanced Technology Research Council.
• Vice-Chairman of the Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technology Council (since February 2025).
• Chairman of the board of L’IMAD Holding Company (since January 2026).

Internationally, he has led UAE delegations to the G20 Leaders’ Summits in Rio de Janeiro (2024) and Johannesburg (2025) and — on behalf of the UAE President — to the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Minsk (2025) and the BRICS Summit in New Delhi (2026). He has also made official visits to countries including India, Singapore, Kazakhstan, China and Ecuador.

Follow the chronology

Sheikh Khaled’s public statements return consistently to a small number of themes. The observations below are drawn only from his documented words and the decisions recorded under his chairmanship.

Investment in people

Launching a career-building programme for Emirati talent in 2021, he framed skills as a national investment: “By building on previous training programmes, we are providing ongoing support for our talented workforce to continue expanding their skills at all stages of their career, and help drive the future progress of the nation.”

Science and preventive healthcare

As Chairman of the Emirates Genome Council he has described genomics as a route to more personalised care: “At the core of our strategy is a desire to change the face of healthcare to become more personalised, enabling people not just in the UAE, but around the world, to live healthier lives.”

Continuity with the Union’s founding values

On UAE Flag Day in 2025 he spoke of renewing “our collective commitment to uphold the values and achievements of the Union, as envisioned by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and his fellow founding rulers of the UAE.”

Families and communities

Decisions taken under his chairmanship of the Executive Council — housing benefits for citizens, the Emirati Family Growth Programme and the Liveability Strategy — show a recurring emphasis on family stability and the quality of neighbourhoods.