Speaker Biographies
November 9, 2005

Ahmad Chalabi is the deputy prime minister of Iraq. He was formerly the president of the Iraqi National Congress, where he developed political and military contacts, created radio and television broadcast networks, and established humanitarian relief and peacekeeping agencies. Mr. Chalabi served as a mathematics professor and as an assistant dean of arts and sciences at the American University of Beirut and is the founder of the Petra Bank in Amman, Jordan. Mr. Chalabi was an active member of the International Board of VISA and was the chairman and chief executive officer of the Petra Bank when a 1989 military decree deposed him from his positions. For more than thirty years, Mr. Chalabi was active in the political opposition to the Baath Party in Iraq.