Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani

Hamad was born in Doha, Qatar on 1 January 1952. His mother died soon after his birth and he was raised by his uncle. He received his early education in Qatar.

He graduated from the British Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1971, and was then commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in Qatar's armed forces. A few months later he returned to Qatar and was made commander of a mobile brigade, which later became a force called "Hamad Brigade". In 1972, Hamad had the rank of general, and became army chief of staff. Next he was appointed commander-in-chief of Qatar's armed forces with the rank of major general. In 1977 he was named minister of defense. He was eventually promoted to the ranks of lieutenant general and full general. His tenure as minister of defense coincided with the Gulf War, and Hamad met United States defense secretary Dick Cheney in 1991, during discussions about the postwar security architecture for the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. Hamad also promoted Qatar's participation in international sports, founded the Qatar Open tennis tournament, and led the Supreme Council for Youth Welfare from 1979 to 1991.

Hamad was appointed Heir Apparent of Qatar in 1977. In the early 1980s, he led the Supreme Planning Council, which sets Qatar's basic economic and social policies. Starting in 1992, Hamad's father began gradually handing over responsibility for the day-to-day running of the country, including the development of Qatar's oil and natural gas resources, rendering him the effective ruler of the country. However, his father ultimately retained control over state finances. Hamad came to be regarded as the de facto leader of the country, while his father's role as emir was considered a formality. He began to change Qatar's foreign policy from other Gulf Arab states by increasing contact and trade with Israel, calling for the lifting of international sanctions against Iraq, and improving relations with Iran. Qatar became the first Gulf monarchy to re-establish relations with Iraq after the Gulf War. Hamad met Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati in 1994, who described Iran's relations with Qatar as "fraternal and good". Hamad also maintained cooperation with the United States, which included the building of a military base in Qatar, despite its criticisms of Qatar's increasing ties with Iraq and Iran.

In 2013, Hamad established the Qatar Investment Authority, which has invested over $100 billion around the world, including The Shard, Barclays, Heathrow Airport, Harrods, Paris Saint-Germain F.C., Siemens and Royal Dutch Shell. It also holds about 17% stake in the Volkswagen Group, Porsche, Hochtief, as well as investments in Sainsbury's.

Hamad was listed as owner of Afrodille S.A., which had a bank account in Luxembourg and shares in two South African companies. He also held a majority of the shares in Rienne S.A. and Yalis S.A., which held a term deposit with the Bank of China in Luxembourg. A relative owned 25% of these: Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar's former prime minister and foreign minister.

Oil and gas wealth

Hamad was able to focus on turning Qatar from a small desert backwater into a major world power by continuing to exploit the country's vast oil fields and discovering and tapping the world's third largest gas reserves. By 2010 liquefied natural gas (LNG) production had reached 77 million tons, making Qatar the richest country in the world. With fewer than two million inhabitants, the average income in the country shot to $86,440 per year per person. Qatar expert Olivier Da Lage said: "When he came to power in 1995, Sheikh Hamad had a goal to place Qatar on the world map by exploiting the gas resources which his father did not develop for fear it would change the emirate's society. Eighteen years on, he has finished the job – Qatar has acquired the financial clout to command respect from neighboring countries and Western governments alike".

Since he had been the crown prince, Hamad promoted the development of natural gas, and in particular the North Field, the largest gas field in the world, as an alternative to Qatar's dependence on crude oil exports. State revenue began growing massively when the North Field started exporting LNG in 1996; its value added increased from US$3 billion to $110 billion over the course of his reign. By 2006 Qatar had become the world's largest LNG exporter. During Hamad's reign, Qatar's GDP increased by 24 times, and per capita GDP increased by nearly six times. Hamad also adopted the Qatar National Vision 2030 plan, aiming to transform Qatar into a knowledge-based economy.

In 2005, under the direction of Hamad and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, the Qatar Investment Authority was established, a sovereign wealth fund to manage the country's oil and natural gas surpluses. The Qatar Investment Authority and its subsidiaries have acquired many businesses abroad, including London's iconic department store Harrods from entrepreneur Mohamed Al-Fayed, Paris-based department store Printemps, French football club Paris Saint-Germain F.C., a former 10% stake in Porsche, a 75% stake in film studio Miramax Films which they acquired from Disney, a 2% stake in media conglomerate and Universal Music Group parent company Vivendi, a US$100 million investment in Chernin Group – whose founder Peter Chernin was COO of News Corp and President of Fox, a 1% stake in luxury goods manufacturer Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, a 6% stake in Credit Suisse, a 12.6% stake in Barclays and several other major companies. They also backed Glencore's $31 billion takeover bid for Xstrata. Qatar became the largest property owner in London with their holdings including the United Kingdom's tallest building The Shard, the London Olympic Village and the InterContinental London Park Lane hotel. They also own several hotels in Cannes including the Majestic Hotel, Grand Hyatt Cannes Hôtel Martinez and the Carlton Hotel, Cannes. QIA was considered to have one of the leading bids in the sales of both Anschutz Entertainment Group and Hulu. As of May 2013, it was reported the Investment Authority was in talks to purchase Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.

Media sources claimed that Hamad made a bid for Manchester United on 11 February 2011. Qatari Holdings offered £1.65 billion to Malcolm Glazer, the American owner of the club. This follows a series of endeavors by the Emir and other Qataris into the global football community, following Qatar's successful bid for the 2022 World Cup, and the Qatar Foundation's recent £125m shirt deal with FC Barcelona. In mid-June 2011, rumours resurfaced that Qatari Holdings were preparing a £2 Billion takeover bid and that the funding, that the club had been using for transfers since the start of June, was actually supplied by the Qataris and not the Glazer Family. In 2012 it was rumoured that Hamad was in bid for Rangers F.C. On 30 March 2012 Hamad offered to buy KF Tirana, although the details have yet to be published.

Autocracy and political reform

During Hamad's reign, the country enacted its first permanent constitution, following the 2003 Qatari constitutional referendum. While Hamad "hailed the event as a great step toward bringing democracy to the country", the constitution actually gave the emir "near-absolute powers", and in practice Hamad ruled an autocratic regime in Qatar. In 1999, Qatar held elections for the first time, to the advisory Central Municipal Council, in which women were also allowed to vote and stand as candidates. This made Qatar the first Gulf country to allow women to vote.

Mehran Kamrava of Georgetown University in Qatar has suggested that Qatar's highly publicized campaign of political liberalization was meant to help stabilize the regime under Hamad, especially through support from the West, and that once sufficient stabilization was achieved, "both the rhetoric and the pretext of democratization were abandoned". Other scholars have also called Hamad's domestic political reforms "largely performative" steps, intended mostly to bolster Qatar's international image without enacting meaningful change, or said that Qatar's "political trajectory reflects a model of selective and symbolic democratization—embracing electoral forms while avoiding their full democratic substance." Although the ministry of information was abolished in 1998, with the press occasionally allowed to criticize the economy or the status of foreign workers, journalists continue to face a "draconian system of censorship". It has been noted in scholarship that the Qatari government "made great play" of the abolition of the Ministry of Information promising greater press freedom, and that in reality the step was a "highly symbolic gesture" intended to signal reform to international partners while attempting to "carefully, selectively, and pre-emptively remain in control of content".