Former foreign minister Ahmed Abul Gheit will take office as an Arab League chief in July for a five-year tenure.

Veteran diplomat Abul Gheit has a long experience of 45 years in the diplomatic work.

Born in Cairo on 12 June 1942, he started his work at the Foreign Ministry as a diplomatic attaché in 1965, after graduating from the Ein Shams's Faculty of Commerce in 1964.

In 1972, he was chosen to join the national security advisory office of Egypt's president. 

In 1974, he worked as the second secretary in the Egyptian mission to the United Nations. Later in 1977, he was the first secretary of the foreign minister of Egypt. 

In 1979, he started to work as a political adviser in Egypt’s embassy in Moscow. In 1982, he returned to Cairo as a political adviser to the foreign minister. 

He rose through the ranks and was appointed as the office manager of the Egyptian foreign minister in 1991.

He was appointed Egypt's ambassador to Italy in 1992 and in 1999 he flied to New York to represent Egypt at the UN.

In 2004, he succeeded Ahmed Maher (2001-2004) as Egypt's foreign minister. 

Aboul Gheit was elected as Secretary-General of the Arab League in March 2016. Abul Gheit, 73, will succeed outgoing secretary-general Nabil el Araby, another former Egyptian foreign minister. 

Six of the seven previous secretary generals were Egyptians.

The league maintains its main headquarters in Cairo.

Source: MENA