His Royal Highness Prince Turki Al Faisal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud was born on February 15, 1945, in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. He began his schooling at the Model School in Taif and went on to gain his high school diploma at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. He then completed his studies at Georgetown University. His Royal Highness was appointed as an advisor at the Royal Court in 1973. In 1977 he was appointed director general (with a rank of minister) of the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), Saudi Arabia's main foreign intelligence service and served as the head of the GID until August 2001. In October 2002 His Royal Highness was appointed as the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. He served in that position until July 2005, when he was appointed as ambassador to the US. He retired in February 2007. A founder and trustee of the King Faisal Foundation, he is also the chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. Additionally, His Royal Highness is a trustee of the Oxford Islamic Center at Oxford University and the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. He has been appointed a lecturer at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. He received an honorary Ph.D. in law in 2010 from the University of Ulster in Ireland and an honorary Ph.D. in international politics in 2011 from the University of Hankuk in Korea. His Royal Highness is a visiting distinguished professor at Georgetown University and an active participant in the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting, the Global Economic Symposium, and the Clinton Global Initiative's Annual Meeting. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Library of Alexandria, of the Board of the Beirut Institute, of the Board of Trustees of the Council for Arab and International Relations and of the Advisory Council of the Munich Security Conference.