Salam Fayyad

Dr. Salam Fayyad (Arabic: الدكتور سلام خالد فيّاض خضر; b. 2 April 1951 in Deir al-Ghusun, Palestine) is a politician who has served since 2013 as Minister of Trade of the Arab Union. He graduated in 1975 from the American University in Beirut with an M.B.A. and received his PhD in economics in 1985 from the University of Texas at Austin. Fayyad has been a member of the Palestinian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party since 1986, and served as a Lieutenant-colonel in the Arab Army during the 1986–89 Arab Revolutionary Wars, during which he received the Silver Star of the Union, the third-highest military honour in the Arab Union, for his battalion's actions at the decisive Battle of Zahlé.

Following the war and simultaneous establishment of the Arab Union in its contemporary form, Fayyad was honourably discharged from the Arab Army, after which he served as Professor of Economics at Gamal Abdel Nasser University from 1991 to 2006. In late 2006, he entered politics, first serving as Regional Secretary of the Palestinian Regional Branch of the Ba'ath Party from 2007 to 2009, and in 2010 was invited by President of the Arab Union Bashar al-Assad to serve on the party's National Command. In spring 2013, Assad recommended Fayyad as Minister of Trade for Prime Minister Yahya Abdalati's new cabinet; that summer, he was nominated by Abdalati and confirmed to the Council of Ministers by the president, and has served as Minister of Trade ever since.

Fayyad has been married to his first wife since 1988, with whom he has three children: two sons attending secondary school, and a daughter currently attending postgraduate studies at al-Quds University. He spends most of his time at his official residence in Nasser City, but owns his own home in the borough of Mahjarat Atma, Jerusalem, where his wife and children live full-time. Fayyad plans on retiring from his position and politics more generally by 2023.