Dr. Abdullah bin Salim Al-Mutani is the deputy chairman of the Shoura Council, the Saudi consultative assembly, having held the rank of minister since his appointment by royal decree in June last year. Prior to his promotion Al-Mutani was a member of the Shoura Council and also served as the general supervisor of the Human Rights Commission in the Makkah region.  He was a member of the scientific council at King Abdul Aziz University and was assistant dean for the arts and humanities faculty there. He also chaired the department of Arabic language, was a member of the editorial board of the arts and humanities’ academic journal and was chairman of the university’s Arab curriculum committee. Al-Mutani served as the chairman of the administrative board of Jeddah’s culture and arts organization and was the cultural consultant at the Saudi Embassy in London. He is a member of the executive board of the Center for Andalusian Studies and Dialogue between Civilizations, based in Rabat, Morocco.  In 1992, Al-Mutani worked as a visiting professor in the Near Eastern languages and cultures department at Indiana University in the US. Between 1995 and 1996, he was also a professor in a similar department at the University of Washington, in Seattle.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in Arabic language and literature from King Abdul Aziz University in Makkah, and obtained a master’s degree in literary criticism from the same university. Al-Mutani also received a doctorate in literary criticism from the University of Exeter in the UK. Earlier this month Al-Mutani was present for the opening of the Winter Enrichment Program, an annual scientific festival running at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) until Jan. 24.