Mr. Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaida'ie was appointed Iraq’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in July 2004. In April 2006, he moved to Washington DC as Iraq’s first ambassador to the United States of America for sixteen years. Prior to his appointment to the U.N., Ambassador Sumaida'ie served as the Minister of Interior in Baghdad.  In this capacity he managed a domestic security force of over 120,000 and made considerable progress in reorganizing and modernizing the Ministry’s operations.  In addition, Ambassador Sumaida'ie served as a member of Governing Council (GC) in Iraq.  In the GC, he was Chairman of the Media Committee.  He played an integral role in the founding of the Iraqi Telecoms and Media Commission and the Public Broadcasting Institution.  He also held positions on the Security, Finance, and Foreign Relations Committees. 

Prior to the removal of the Baathist regime, Ambassador Sumaida'ie was actively involved in opposition efforts in the United Kingdom and attended a number of high-level conferences throughout the world.  As founding member of the Association of Iraqi Democrats and the Democratic Party of Iraq, he is widely renowned as an expert on the political climate in Iraq. 

A successful businessman, Ambassador Sumaida'ie founded a procurement agency in 1978 and embarked on a number of entrepreneurial ventures in his career.  In the 1980's Ambassador Sumaida'ie established a design office in London, pioneered the use of computers in Islamic art and completed important works in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom.  Most recently he served as Co-Founder and Managing Director of China Business International, an investment consultancy and procurement company based in Beijing.

Ambassador Sumaida'ie was born in Baghdad and resided there until 1960.  He graduated from Durham University in the United Kingdom with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1965.  He then returned to Iraq to work with the Baghdad Electricity Board and Iraqi Petroleum Company before leaving the country in 1973.

Ambassador Sumaida'ie enjoys a wide range of cultural interests, including writing  Arabic poetry in classical form, Calligraphy and and designs in the Islamic decorative medium.