Samir Sumaida'ie was appointed Iraq’s Ambassador to the United States in April 2006. Sumaida'ie was born in Baghdad and resided there until 1960. He graduated from Durham University in the United Kingdom with a degree in electrical engineering in 1965. He then returned to Iraq to work with the Baghdad Electricity Board and Iraqi Petroleum Company before leaving the country in 1973.

 

Sumaida'ie founded a procurement agency in 1978 and has embarked on a number of entrepreneurial ventures in his career.  During the 1980s he established a design office in London, pioneered the use of computers in Islamic art and completed important works in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom.  Most recently he served as co-founder and managing director of China Business International, an investment consultancy and procurement company based in Beijing.

 

Prior to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Sumaida'ie was actively involved in opposition efforts in the United Kingdom and attended a number of high-level conferences throughout the world. He was a founding member of the Association of Iraqi Democrats and the Democratic Party of Iraq. 

 

Following the US invasion of Iraq, Sumaida'ie served as a member of Governing Council (GC) in Iraq.  In the GC, he was chairman of the media committee, helped found the Iraqi Telecoms and Media Commission and the Public Broadcasting Institution, and held positions on the security, finance, and foreign relations committees. He then served as the Minister of Interior in Baghdad. In this capacity he managed a domestic security force of over 120,000.  Prior to his appointment as ambassador to the US, Sumaida'ie served as Permanent Representative to the United Nations from July 2004 to April 2006.