Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Rabiah

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Rabeeah is a Saudi pediatric surgeon and former government official. He has filled a number of supervisory and advisory roles in Saudi Arabia, including Minister of Health, Advisor to the Royal Court, and Supervisor General of the international aid agency KSRelief.

Early life and education Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Rabeeah was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on 23 February 1955.

Al Rabeeah attended King Saud University, Riyadh where he obtained his MBBS degree in July 1979. He interned in August 1980 at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh. In 1981, Al Rabeeah was formally licensed to practice medicine. He studied at the University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton (1985) and IWK Hospital for Children, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia (1987) where he completed Fellowships in General and Pediatric Surgery, respectively.

Career King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud appointed Al Rabeeah as Minister of Health for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He was appointed on 14 February 2009. He served as Minister of Health until 21 April 2014.

Al Rabeeah serves as the Supervisor General of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (known as KSrelief), headquartered in Riyadh. He concurrently holds the position of Advisor to the Royal Court. KSrelief was inaugurated on 13 May 2015 by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud; its purpose is to serve both as an aid-monitoring organization and as a direct provider for Saudi humanitarian aid and relief being administered worldwide.

Conjoined twins As a pediatric surgeon, Al Rabeeah has performed separations of conjoined twins. He performed his first separation of female Saudi conjoined twins at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Riyadh in December 1990, as well as a further three. Since 1996, Al Rabeeah and the Saudi National Team have reviewed 99 cases and performed 42 successful separations of conjoined twins from 19 countries. 38 of these surgeries were carried out at the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh.

One of the most complex cases that Al Rabeeah undertook was at the request of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud concerning Malaysian conjoined twins, Ahmed and Mohammed. Al Rabeeah performed the surgery on the twins in September 2002. The numerous surgical phases took 23.5 hours and resulted in a successful separation of the boys.

Al Rabeeah wrote a book in Arabic entitled My Experience with Conjoined Twins; this book has been abridged in English.

Other positions held

1992 – present: Head of the Surgical and Multidisciplinary Team for the Saudi National Conjoined Twins Programme May 2011: President of the Executive Board of the Arab Health Ministers' Council August 2010: Chairman of the Board of Directors, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre

Recognitions March 2010, Recognition by Arabian Business Magazine as being the 45th Most Influential Arab. December 2012, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences for Outstanding Medical Personalities in the Arab World. November 2016, Humanitarian Award from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Regional Network for Social Responsibility (member of United Nations Global Compact) – Kingdom of Bahrain.