Abdurrahim El Keib

Early life

El-Keib left Libya in 1976 and joined the Libyan opposition and over the years worked to help finance the movement. From a prestigious family from Tripoli with roots and part of his family in Sabratha – a coastal town 70 kilometers (45 miles) west of Tripoli – during his exile, El-Keib would meet his family, who remained in Libya, during excursions to Tunis, Morocco, and elsewhere.

Academic career

El-Keib moved to Los Angeles, California, where he earned his master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California in 1976; he then moved to Raleigh, North Carolina where earned his doctorate from North Carolina State University in 1984. He joined the University of Alabama as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering in 1985 and became Professor in 1996. He has lectured at the University of Tripoli, North Carolina State University, and the University of Alabama. El-Keib, an expert in power system economics, planning and controls, and in strategic planning for higher education took leave from his tenured faculty position at Alabama to direct the Division of Electrical, Electronics, and Computer Engineering at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 1999–2001. In 2006 he left Alabama to chair the EE Department and to lead the effort to establish the graduate program at The Petroleum Institute in the UAE (where El-Keib remained until he joined the Libyan Transitional National Council as one of its representatives for Tripoli in 2011). He has supervised many M.Sc. theses and PhD dissertations on "capacitive compensation planning and operation for primary distribution feeders" and is the recipient of several teaching and research awards.

El-Keib's research in the area of Electrical Power Engineering and is an author of numerous research papers. His research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the United States Department of Energy (US DoE), Southern Company Services (SC), and Alabama Power Company (APCO). He has published numerous papers and research reports and a book chapter. His work on Emissions Constrained Dispatch and VoltlVar compensation on primary distribution feeders has been implemented by several companies in the US. He also served as a consultant to several industries including Alabama Power Company and Southern Company Services.

He served as a member of the Board of Directors, the Arab Science and Technology Foundation, 2001–2007, a member of the Science and Technology Panel, the Islamic Development Bank, Senior member of IEEE, Associate Editor for the IEEE Power Engineering Society Letters, 1992–2000, and the World Science and Engineering Academy and Society (WSEAS) Transactions on Power Systems, a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Korean Institute of electrical Engineers (KIEE)/Society of Power Engineering, and of the Advisory Board of the International Journal of Innovations in Energy Systems and Power (IJESP).

In 2005, El-Keib founded the Libyan International Company for Energy and Technology.

Community work

A devout Muslim, Dr. El-Keib helped lead the Islamic community during his two decades in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and was involved in informal, inter-faith dialogue. He is married to Dr. Mawia Kaddoura, who taught at The University of Alabama, American university of Sharjah, The Petroleum Institute, and Al Hosn University. Her father served as a President of The University of Libya and later Senator during the days of king Idris Sanusi before Kaddifi's time.

Prime Minister of Libya

On November 1, 2011, Abdurrahim El-Keib was named the interim Prime Minister of Libya after garnering 26 out 51 votes from the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC). Despite repeated clashes with the NTC, his Cabinet stayed in office through the national elections, which it held successfully in a transparent, free, and democratic manner.

Foreign policy

While serving as Prime Minister, El-Keib's time has been dedicated in large part to foreign policy. Libya has restored relationships with the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. El-Keib collaborated well on the UN and the European Union on issues of interest to Libya during that time, and has also sought to collaborate with the Arab and Islamic world. In addition, he also exerted serious effort to ensure the members of the African Union and other countries such as Russia, China and other southeastern Asia of Libya's interest to maintain mutually beneficial political, security, and economic relationships and collaboration that are based on mutual respect and respect for national sovereignty and interests. His government called for and held a security conference that involved the ministers of defense and the security in the neighboring countries including Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Algeria, Tunis, Morocco, Mauritania, and Mali. He also addressed the African Union, the International Human Rights Organization, and the UN security Council and visited several important countries and received many foreign leaders in Tripoli to assure all that Libya was on the right track and was making progress to hold that national elections, Libya's first after almost fifty years including 42 years of dictatorship and following a bloody revolution. His efforts was also useful in obtaining what was needed to increase the country's oil production, which reached a level of 1.6 million barrel per day (bpd) from about 200,000 bpd and also the release of Libyan frozen funds.