Bashar al Assad

Bashar Hafez alAssad Levantine pronunciation bornSeptember 1965 is the President of Syria, commanderinchief of the Syrian Armed Forces, General Secretary of the ruling Baath Party and Regional Secretary of the partys branch in Syria. OnJuly 2000, he was elected president succeeding Hafez alAssad, his father, who had led Syria foryears and died in office a month prior. In both the Syrian presidential election, 2000 and subsequent 2007 election, Bashar Assad received votes in his favor in the upper 90th percentile in uncontested elections where other candidates were not permitted to run against him. OnJuly 2014, Bashar Assad was sworn in for a new sevenyear term, after taking 88.7 of votes in the presidential elections, running against two regime sanctioned candidates, the first contested presidential election in Baathist Syrias history.

Assad graduated from the medical school of Damascus University in 1988, and started to work as a doctor in the army. Four years later, he attended postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital, in London, specialising in ophthalmology. In 1994, after his elder brother Bassel was killed in a car crash, Bashar was recalled to Syria to take over Bassels role as heir apparent. He entered the military academy, taking charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1998. In December 2000, Assad married Asma Assad, born Akhras.

Source: Wikipedia