caption religion birth_place nationality ethnicity birth_date image article_title name occupation
khanfar in 2006 islam palestine palestinian arab 1969 wadah khanfar.jpg wadah khanfar
 wadah khanfar president of al sharq forum
wadah khanfar

wadah khanfar -lrb- وضاح خنفر , born 1969 -rrb- is the president of al sharq forum , an independent network dedicated to developing long-term strategies for political development , social justice and economic prosperity of the people of the middle east .
he previously served as the director general of al jazeera media network .
he has been ranked by `` foreign policy magazine '' in 2011 as the first in the fp top 100 global thinkers , and in `` fast company '' as the first in the 100 most creative people in business -lrb- 2011 -rrb- and as one of the most ` powerful people in the world ' by `` forbes '' magazine -lrb- 2009 -rrb- .
, in 2008 `` world economic forum '' named khanfar as one of the ` young global leaders ' .
during his tenure al jazeera went from a single channel to a media network with multiple properties including the al jazeera arabic channel , al jazeera english , al jazeera documentary , al jazeera sport , al jazeera 's news websites , the al jazeera media training and development center , the al jazeera center for studies , al jazeera mubasher -lrb- live -rrb- , and al jazeera mobile .
on 20 september 2011 , he stepped down as the head of al jazeera network .
