ABOUT

FAMILY, EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Al Nuaimi was born in Ajman, son of Rashid Abdullah Al Nuaimi, former UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the late seventies, Al Nuaimi enrolled at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, where he took both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Education.

In 1982, Al Nuaimi returned to the United Arab Emirates to pursue a career as an educator in the newly established national university, the United Arab Emirates University and went on to receive his PhD in Education from the University of Imam Mohammad Bin Saud in Saudi Arabia in 1991. His time there posed a stark contrast to his experience in Oregon.

Al Nuami completed the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard University.

EDUCATION

Al Nuaimi began his career as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Curricula and Teaching Methods in the College of Education at the United Arab Emirates University in 1991. This was the beginning of a career which saw him eventually become the university’s Provost in 1999.

This role later led to his being appointed as the advisor to the Minister of Education in 2006; He was responsible for providing analysis and advice on major educational policies, programs, and operational issues. He returned to the university in 2012, when Al Nuaimi became the Vice-Chancellor and later, Chancellor. During his work at the United Arab Emirates University, he led the university to several remarkable achievements including obtaining international institutional accreditation from the WASC Senior College and University Commission, accreditation of various academic programs, advancing the reputation of the university, and its position in global rankings.

In 2016, Al Nuaimi became the Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge, commonly referred to as ADEK and formerly known as Abu Dhabi Education Council. While he was serving as the Chancellor and Chairman of the United Arab Emirates University Council, Al Nuaimi spearheaded the rapid and comprehensive reform of the public education system in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, with a focus on developing inclusivity, academic excellence, social skills, and job skills.

POLITICS

In 2019, Al Nuaimi was appointed to the United Arab Emirates Federal National Council, the country’s consultative parliamentary body. As of 2019, he was serving as the chairman of the Defense, Interior, and Foreign Affairs Committee and oversaw key issues including drafting legislation, and the review of international agreements and treaties.

Al Nuaimi is also a key figure in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) as Chairman of the UAE delegation to the IPU; Chairman of the Gender Partnership Committee; and a member of several committees including the Executive Committee, Finance sub-committee, and Transparency Committee.

Al Nuaimi remains a key figure in the advancement of the Abraham Accords and bilateral relations with Israel. played an important role in the negotiation of the Abraham Accords and the normalization of diplomatic relations with Israel. Al Nuaimi led the first-ever parliamentary delegation from the UAE to Israel.
He and the other delegates were the first members of the UAE Federal National Council ever to visit the Knesset. The delegation also met with the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs. During this trip, Al Nuaimi made a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. This was the first visit of an Arab parliamentarian since Anwar Sadat in 1977.

NON-PROFIT WORK

Al Nuaimi served as the first secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Elders, which was founded in 2014 to promote peace in Muslim communities. The council brings together Muslim scholars, experts, and other prominent figures known with reputations for being knowledgeable, just, independent, and moderate.

The same year, he also became Chairman of the International Centre of Excellence for Countering Extremism and Violent Extremism (Hedayah), the first-ever premier International Center of Excellence dedicated to using its expertise and experiences to counter violent extremism in all of its forms and manifestations through dialogue, communications, capacity building programs, research, and analysis.

In 2018, Al Nuaimi founded The World Muslim Communities Council, an institution dedicated to supporting the peaceful integration of Muslims into the global community. As of 2023, he was still its chairman.

Most recently, he became the Chair of the newly launched Manara Centre For Coexistence in Abu Dhabi, a region-to-region project to encourage peace and tolerance, with a focus on the region’s youth. It is a joint project with the US-based Anti-Defamation League, which has been fighting prejudice for well over a century.

MEDIA CAREER

In 2015, Al Nuaimi founded the Al-Ain News Portal, a comprehensive Arab news portal, where he also served as the Editor-in-Chief. He was the founder and Chairman of Al-Majal Media and the editor-in-chief of Al-Ain News Portal. Additionally, he is the founder of 7D News based in London, covering international news. Today, Al Nuaimi also sits on the advisory board of All Arab News.

WRITING

Al Nuaimi is the author of the book National State: Imagining a World Without Narrow Nation States. It was published in Bloomsbury in 2021.