Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE

Early life

Mansour was born in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi on 21 November 1970, the fifth son of the Emir of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. His mother is Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Al Ketbi and he has five full-brothers: Mohammed, Hamdan, Hazza, Tahnoun, and Abdullah. They are known as Bani Fatima or sons of Fatima. Mansour attended Santa Barbara Community College as an English student in 1989. He is a graduate of the United Arab Emirates University where he received a bachelor's degree in international affairs in 1993.

Sanctions & controversy

Mansour bin Zayed was described by The New York Times as the Sheikh who plays a silent yet powerful role in strengthening the UAE’s soft power through the ownership of Manchester City. But, the Premier League team was alleged of manipulating its finances to acquire top-notch players. A UEFA report concluded that Sheikh Mansour and ADUG facilitated sponsorship payments to the club through a financial broker. Under the soft power strategy, Sheikh Mansour also strived to bolster the Emirati ambitions in global media, acquiring the Arabic television stations and websites for Sky News and CNN. In 2023, Mansour reached a deal worth $600 million to acquire The Daily Telegraph through his firm International Media Investments (IMI), but the British government blocked the takeover over concerns about national security and press freedom. Sheikh Mansour also took the role of a "handler" under the Emirates' hard power strategy, managing the country's secret conflicts in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Sudan. Mansour built relations with unreformed warlords and autocrats that were being supported by the UAE in the proxy wars. He was found keeping a regular contact with military commander Khalifa Haftar, who was being backed by the UAE in the Libyan war. In Sudan, Mansour was involved in shifting Omar al-Bashir's alliance from Iran to the UAE, providing him with billions of dollars in funds. Al-Bashir assisted the UAE in the Yemen war and deployed his troops to serve the Emirati interests. Mansour also hosted General Mohamed Hamdan at an arms fair in the UAE, two months before the Sudan war started in April 2023. Charities controlled by Mansour were a cover for smuggling armaments to Hamdan's forces, which have engaged in massacres, mass rapes and genocide. In January 2026 UK-based human rights organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide launched a campaign calling on the English Premier League to hold Mansour to account for the UAE's role in the war in Sudan. Mansour's luxurious life and interest in collecting superyachts led him to acquire the Topaz worth US$688 million. The US prosecutors found the yacht was funded using proceeds of the 1MDB scandal. Mansour was listed as a co-conspirator in the fraud and was put at the top of a "hierarchy of bribes" in the case. He never faced charges related to scandal, but his firms agreed to pay $1.8 billion to Malaysia in 2023. His Mubadala wealth fund paid the 2 billion US dollars into the Trump and Witkoff family´s World Liberty crypto company in May 2025.

Career

In 1997, Sheikh Mansour was appointed chairman of the presidential office, at which time his father Sheikh Zayed was the president of the UAE. After the death of his father, he was appointed by his eldest half-brother, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, as the first minister of presidential affairs of the United Arab Emirates, following a merger of the presidential office and presidential court. He also served in a number of positions in Abu Dhabi to support his brother, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who was still the Crown Prince at the time. He was appointed chairman of the ministerial council for services (now Ministerial Development Council). Since 2000 he chaired National Center for Documentation and Research. In the 2004 reshuffle, he became minister for presidential affairs. In 2005, he became the deputy chairman of the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), chairman of the Emirates Foundation, Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, and Abu Dhabi Fund for Development. In 2006, he was named the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department. In 2007, he was appointed chairman of Khalifa bin Zayed Charity Foundation. Mansour served as the chairman of First Gulf Bank until 2006, and as a member of the board of trustees of the Zayed charitable and humanitarian foundation. Mansour has established scholarship programs for UAE students to study abroad. He is also chairman of the Emirates horse racing authority (EHRA). On 11 May 2009, he was appointed deputy prime minister, retaining his cabinet post of minister of presidential affairs. On 29 March 2023, with the approval of the UAE Federal Supreme Council, the UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued a resolution, appointing Mansour as the country's second vice president, to serve alongside Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai. In October 2022, whilst Mansour's tenure as deputy prime minister, he was accused of helping Roman Abramovich and other wealthy Russian oligarchs evade sanctions during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. He was described as being "central" to the flow of sanctioned Russian assets to the UAE.

Mansour is the chairman of the Emirati state-owned Mubadala Investment Company. He was formerly chairman of IPIC. After the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal was highlighted and Khadem al-Qubaisi, who was managing IPIC, was arrested in 2016, IPIC was folded into Aabar Investments. Qubaisi blamed Mansour and the UAE authorities for using him as a scapegoat in the affair. In 2005, he was appointed as a member of the Supreme Petroleum Council. In the same year, he chaired the board of directors of IPIC and became a board member of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). In 2007, he was appointed chairman of the Emirates Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of UAE. Mansour has a 32% stake in Virgin Galactic after investing $280 million in the project through Aabar in July 2009. Aabar

Personal life

Sheikh Mansour married Sheikha Alia bint Mohammed bin Butti Al Hamed in the mid-1990s. They have one son together, Zayed, who married Sheikha Meera bint Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan in May 2022. In 2005, Mansour married Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. They have two daughters and three sons: Fatima (2006), Mohammed (2007), Hamdan (2011), Latifa (2014), and Rashid (2017).