The members of the Governing Council of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa elected here Yousef bin Ibrahim Al-Bassam, as the new head of the Bank's board of directors, succeeding Ahmed Al-Abdullah Al-Akeil who ended his term in April, 2008. Engineer Yousef bin Ibrahim Al-Bassam was born in 1952 in the city of Unaizah, Qassim Region. He holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from King Saud University (KSU), a master's degree from the Michigan State University. He held several positions in his career including Vice President and Managing Director of the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) since 2001. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development since 2000 and until April 2008. He also represented the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the Administrative Committee for Al-Aqsa Fund and Aqsa and Al-Quds Intifada Fund. He was elected as President of that Committee since 2000 and a representative of the Kingdom of the Administrative Committee at AGFUND (The Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development organizations) since 2001 and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Arab Open University since 2002. He is also the Chairman of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund since 2004.
