Ghazi Abdul Rahman Al Gosaibi

Saudi government official, ambassador and poet (1940–2010)

Ghazi Abdul Rahman Al Gosaibi (غازي بن عبدالرحمن القصيبي; 3 March 1940 – 15 August 2010) was a Saudi politician, diplomat, technocrat, poet, and novelist. He was an intellectual and a member of the Al Gosaibi family that is one of the oldest and richest trading families of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Al Gosaibi was considered among Saudi Arabia's topmost technocrats since the mid 1970s. The Majalla called him the "Godfather of Renovation" while Saudi journalist Othman Al Omeir argued that he was "the only great man in Saudi Arabia."

Al Gossaibi was born on 3 March 1940 to one of the richest families of the Kingdom in Hofuf located in Al Ahsa province. His mother was from the Kateb family of Mecca who died when he was aged nine months, and he was raised by his grandmother. He attended the University of Cairo and received a degree in law in 1961. Later, he moved to the United States and graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in international relations in 1964. He later completed his PhD in law at the University College London in 1970; his PhD thesis was about the Yemen crisis which took place from 1962 to 1967.

Al Gosaibi began his career working as a lecturer at King Saud University in 1965. chairman of Jubail Petrochemical Company (Sadaf) and Yanbu Petrochemical Company (Yanpet), In October 1975, King Khalid appointed him the minister of industry and electricity, which he held the position until 1983. He also served as the minister of health from 1983 to 1984. Then he served as the ambassador to Bahrain (1984 1992) and was subsequently appointed the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland in 1992. In 1999, Al Gosaibi nominated himself to serve for the post of director general of UNESCO. However, he was not elected, and Japanese diplomat, Koichiro Matsuura, became the director general. Al Gosaibi's term as Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland ended in September 2002. His tenure lasted until April 2004. During this period, Al Gosaibi was also appointed board member of Saudi Aramco and served in the post until October 2004. King Fahd appointed him as the minister of labor on 13 April 2004 following the split of the labor and social affairs ministry into two. He contributed to the national strategy of Saudization into practice and motivated private firms to employ a greater proportion of Saudi nationals. He served in the post until his death in 2010

Al Gosaibi was a member of the honorary committee of Painting & Patronage from 2000 to 2010. He also actively participated in the organization of its first and second programmes held in London in 2000 and Riyadh in 2001, respectively. King Fahd fired him after reading the poem.

Al Gosaibi, as the minister of industry and electricity, stated in 1980 that American foreign policy was "self doubt, isolative, and had a tendency to abdicate." During his tenure as Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland, he described Osama bin Laden as "a human monster" in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the BBC's HARDtalk interview. In 2002, he argued that the suicide bombers "died to honor God's word." He was an apparent critic of the Saudi conservative society. and is known for his liberal religious views. He was against terrorism and extremism and called for democratic reform in the Kingdom, although he argued that it needed to be a very gradual process. He was labeled by radicals as "a Westerner, infidel, secular and a hypocrite", and experienced a systematic and intense ideological campaign against him. However, when a significant financial crisis affected all countries, in January 2009 he warned Saudi firms against exploiting the crisis as a reason for terminating Saudi nationals and suggested them to terminate foreign workers in the country.

Al Gosaibi married to a German woman who was raised in Bahrain. He was buried in Al Oud cemetery in Riyadh on the same day, 15 August 2010. His family held another funeral service for him in Bahrain.

Asharqia Chamber began to offer the Ghazi Al Gosaibi Award for the promising small and medium size companies, particularly in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The award is given biannually. In April 2013, Al Waleed bin Talal Foundation Global, headed by Prince Al Waleed, bought the house of Ghazi Al Gosaibi in Manama, Bahrain, to renovate it.

In 2017 the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association posthumously recognized Al Gosaibi as a pioneer in petrochemicals and chemicals and awarded him with the GPCA Legacy Award.