Dr. Khalid bin Saleh Al-Sultan is the president of King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy and has held the rank of minister since June 2018.
He has also served as president of the Saudi Electricity Co. board of directors since last January.
Previously, Al-Sultan was the rector of King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran and sat on the board of directors at Saudi Aramco between 2003 and 2018.
He began his academic career as an assistant professor at KFUPM in 1990, rising through the university’s academic ranks before becoming rector in 2003.
He was a visiting professor at King Saud University between 1999 and 2000, and an undersecretary at the Higher Education Ministry between 1999 and 2003.
Al-Sultan was acting director of Hail University from 2005 to 2007, and a member of the board of trustees of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology from 2009 to 2017.
He received his bachelor’s and master’s in industrial engineering from KFUPM, receiving a master’s in mathematics from the University of Michigan as well as a Ph.D.
Earlier this week he led a Saudi delegation at the ninth session of the General Assembly of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi.
During his speech, he reaffirmed the Kingdom’s commitment to renewable energy and said the government was working to build a sustainable renewable energy sector.
Saudi Arabia’s target is to generate 9.5 gigawatts by 2023, including from solar, wind and geothermal energy.
