Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani

Notable work and positions

Al Jazeera Media Network - Chairman of the Board (since 1996)
Qatar Media Corporation - Chairman
Al Jazeera Children's Channel - Chairman of the Board (from 2005)

Biography

Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani is chairman of the board of the Al Jazeera Media Network and chairman of the state-owned Qatar Media Corporation. A member of Qatar's ruling Al Thani family, he holds a journalism degree from Qatar University and began his career in 1987 at Qatar's Ministry of Information, working in its printing and publications department and later its Foreign Information Agency before becoming the ministry's first undersecretary. When Qatar's leadership decided to abolish the Ministry of Information in the mid-1990s, Sheikh Hamad was tasked with founding a new pan-Arab satellite news channel; he was appointed chairman of the board of Al Jazeera Satellite Channel around the end of 1994, and the channel launched in November 1996. In 2005 he also became chairman of the board of the Al Jazeera Children's Channel. Ahead of the 2006 launch of Al Jazeera English, the company was renamed the Al Jazeera Media Network, and Sheikh Hamad's oversight today extends across all of its channels as well as the Qatar Media Corporation.