Haidar Hadi

Haidar was born in Baghdad, Iraq on 27 July 1970 into a working-class Iraqi family. Both his parents are originally from Najaf, in south-central Iraq. His father, Mansour Hadi Al-Athari, has a military background, having served in the Iraqi army during the Iran–Iraq War and is now a businessman based in Baghdad, Iraq and Amman, Jordan. Haidar is the second eldest child and the only son of his parents. He grew up in Baghdad throughout his childhood and finished elementary school and high school in Baghdad.[2]

Haidar attended university in England where he studied Business Administration. After graduating, Haidar moved to London for his job and remained in London until 2005.

In 1999, Haidar met his future wife Maysum Hadi. After meeting in London and getting to know each other over the coming months, they got engaged in 1999. In January 2000 they got married in Knightsbridge, London.

After graduating from University, Haidar took a job as an export manager for Canary Trading Company Limited from 1997 to 2000. In 2000, he took up the role of Project Manager at Webstar PLC. Both of these jobs were in London, where he worked for several years.

In 2005, Haidar and his family moved to Amman, the capital of Jordan.

In 2006, Haidar moved back to Iraq after 15 years which he spent mainly in England and Jordan. In 2007, Haidar's name was put forward as a nomination to be an ambassador by former prime minister and vice president of Iraq Ayad Allawi. In October 2009, Haidar Hadi was formally announced as an Iraqi ambassador.

In 2007, former Iraqi vice president and prime minister Ayad Allawi nominated Haidar Hadi to be an ambassador. Following the nomination, Haidar was successfully announced as an ambassador in October 2009.[3]

In June 2010, Haidar was announced as the new Iraqi ambassador to Belarus. This made him the first Iraqi ambassador to serve in Belarus since the Iraqi Embassy shut down in 2003 and only the third Iraqi ambassador in history to serve in Belarus. This was his first post as an ambassador and he went into Minsk as the second youngest ambassador in the Iraqi government and the youngest in Belarus. He spent his first few months in Minsk setting up the ambassador's residence and the Iraqi Embassy, meeting with the Iraqi students and passing his credentials to Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.[4] In 2015, Haidar began working on starting a direct line between Baghdad and Minsk with Iraqi Airways. The project was delayed several times, and it took a few years to set up and Haidar monitored the situation until the first flight landed in Minsk in early 2017. Iraqi Airways maintained the route to Minsk and added more flights in as it grew more popular.[4]

In December 2016, Haidar and his family moved to Moscow for the start of his second post. After a few months refurbishing the ambassador's residence, Haidar and his family moved in to the home. For the first few months, Haidar was setting up his post and gradually inducting himself into the political community of Russia. In March 2017, Haidar passed his credentials to Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, officially marking his position. During his time in Russia, Haidar has visited multiple cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Grozny, Sochi, Magas, Ulyanovsk, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Maykp and Kazan on official and personal visits.[5]

In February 2018, whilst serving as an ambassador to the Russian Federation, Haidar was appointed as a non-resident ambassador to Belarus. His return to the country marked the first time Belarus had an active Iraqi ambassador since he left his post two years ago. After being transferred from Moscow to Jordan in November 2019, Haidar was no longer the non-resident ambassador to Belarus, which once again left Minsk without an active Iraqi ambassador.

In November 2019 Haidar moved into Amman, Jordan to begin the third post of his career. He passed his credentials to King Abdullah II of Jordan in December 2019. In 2020, he was also assigned as the non-resident ambassador to Palestine.

Haidar is a Distinguished Fellow for the New Westminster College in British Columbia, Canada. He was given the role in October 2014 and still holds it. He has a biography on their website and his CV can also be seen there.[1]

In May 2018, Haidar received an Honorary Doctorate Diploma from Adyghe State University. In November 2018, Ulyanovsk State Technical University named Haidar as an Honorary Professor.