The death of Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al-Nahyan has been confirmed four days after his glider plane crashed in Morocco. His body has been recovered from a lake by divers.
Sheikh Ahmed, 41, was a younger brother of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, the President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi.
Sheikh Ahmed crashed into the artificial lake created by the Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah dam about 40km south of Rabat on Friday. His Spanish co-pilot had been rescued shortly after the crash, but recent heavy rains meant that swollen waters hampered the search. Diving teams from several countries, including France, Spain, and the United States as well as Morocco and the UAE, had taken part in the search.
Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al-Nahyan was widely regarded as the one of the most significant young business executives in the world and was ranked 27th in the 2009 Forbes list of the world’s most powerful people.
That was primarily because of his position as managing director of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), one of the world's biggest sovereign funds with assets believed to worth between $500 and $700 billion. He had worked as a European equities analyst at ADIA for six years before becoming its head in the early 1980s.
He was previously Interior Minister of the UAE.
Although he was a restrained and very private man in his personal and business life, Sheikh Ahmad was seen as one of the main drivers behind ADIA’s principal investments and one of the individuals most closely associated with its policies. In a rare interview at the start of 2010, Sheikh Ahmed had indicated that ADIA was reviewing its performance in the light of the global financial turmoil and would reconsider its investment strategy, for instance to take a larger investment than the five per cent stake which ADIA rarely exceeded.
He was also chairman of the board of trustees of the Zayed Foundation for Charitable and Humanitarian Works, and his charitable interests at a personal level are well-established. He was for instance well known in Oum Azza, a farming village some kilometres from the crash site where he maintained a private residence; reportedly he frequently gave charity to poor families. Recently he also paid the debts of 221 prisoners so that they could be released under Presidential clemency during the month of Ramadan last year.
His state funeral was scheduled to take place in the capital yesterday (Wednesday) with prayers at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque after Asr. The Ministry of Presidential Affairs announced three days for mourning from 31st March, a period during which flags will be flown at half mast.
We offer our sincere condolences to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan and the family of Sheikh Ahmed.
