Iraqi engineer who oversaw the construction of dams and other massive projects. One of the Iraq's first oil engineers Fakhri lived through the rise and fall of Iraq through the Turks, British, monarchy, Ba'ath and the invasion of Iraq by the US-led forces in 2003. After having qualified from the University of California in Berkley he started his career, in the late 1930s, with the Iraqi Petroleum Company. Later on, he moved to the Ministry of Agriculture and oversaw massive projects, in the 1950s, including the construction of a whole host of dams, bringing Iraq's agricultural heritage into the 20th century at a time of unprecedented oil windfalls. Fakhri Kubba was born in Baghdad into a respected family and after the first Gulf war, in early 1990s, he moved to London for good.