Ahmed Aboul Gheit was born in Cairo in 1942. He joined the Egyptian diplomatic corps in 1965, serving in Egypt's embassies in Cyprus (1968–72) and the Soviet Union (1979–82), as Egypt's ambassador to Italy (1992–96), and as Egypt's permanent representative to the United Nations (1999–2004). In 2004, he was appointed by Hosni Mubarak as Egypt’s minister of foreign affairs, a post he held until 2011. He was elected secretary general of the Arab League in 2016.