Hajim al-Hasani

Hajam al-Hasani, a Sunni, is the former Speaker in the Iraqi Parliament.

"But among the Sunnis is the body's president, Hajim Hasani, a contrarian politician who defied his original political party's order that he resign from Iraq's interim government a year ago and now functions as an independent. He presides over the sometimes unruly and often contentious body with the stern air of an elementary schoolteacher," Thanassis Cambanis wrote August 1, 2005, in the Boston Globe.

Profiles
Hajim Al-Hasani is a Ph.D. graduate of the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Connecticut. Al-Hasani "specialized in agricultural economic analysis of industrial organizations" and "spent several years conducting research for the department after graduating in 1990." 

As Iraq’s minister of industry and minerals, al-Hasani "had oversight of about 70 companies with 280 factories, and had been working on privatizing some sectors of the economy that had been state-controlled for decades." 

In October 2004, while visiting in Connecticut, "Al-Hasani called UConn his 'second home' and remarked that, after serving as a deputy member of the Iraqi Governing Council and deputy chair of its finance committee, he had expected to be named as Iraq’s minister of finance. But when officials reviewed his curriculum vitae and saw his doctorate in industrial organization from UConn, he was given responsibility for his nation’s business interests as industry minister." 

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * New Iraq
 * post-war Iraq