Saudi Arabia oil minister and one of the industry's most important men. Ali al-Naimi having worked his way up to the chief executive at Saudi Aramco through its transition from being controlled by America's big oil companies to becoming the world's most powerful state-owned oil company after its nationalisation in 1980. In 1995, he was appointed Saudi oil minister, making him the first person to have held two of the most important positions in the Saudi oil industry, which accounts for up to 95 per cent of the kingdom's export earnings. Ali al-Naimi who is widely respected has technical and academic background that gives him a strong understanding of the subtle seasonal changes with the oil sector and a depth of oil market knowledge that few of his fellow Opec ministers share, according to oil industry. Walking a tight-rope of petro-politics al-Naimi, an articulate and thioughtful minister, is concerned about Saudi Arabia 's energy future. In his memoir Out Of The Desert he charts his rise from childhood poverty as a nomadic Bedouin to global oil's central banker; from office boy to world's powerful oilman. Al-Naimi was a student in the Beirut for seven years until 1963, before going to Stanford University, California, to obtain his masters in geology.