Dr Salam Fayyad

Dr Salam Fayyad is a Palestinian politician, who on June 15, 2007, was appointed the Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. Until that date, Fayyad had been the Finance Minister of the Palestinian National Authority in the Fatah interim government from 2002.

Fayyad is an internationally respected economist and politician.Salam Fayyad received his MBA from St. Edwards University in 1980. [5] Dr. Fayyad has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a student of William A. Barnett and where he did early research on the American Division Monetary Aggregates, which he continued on the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Fayyad began his career teaching economics at Yarmuk University in Jordan, before joining the World Bank from 1987 - 1995. He subsequently became the International Monetary Fund representative to the Palestinian National Authority until 2001, before becoming its Finance Minister.

Upon resigning as Finance Minister, Fayyad ran as founder and leader of the new Third Way political party in the Palestinian legislative election of 2006 alongside Hanan Ashrawi and Yasser Abd Rabbo. Fayyad and Ashrawi won seats in the PLC.