Talabani, Qubad

(1977- )

   The second son of Jalal Talabani and Hero Talabani, Qubad Talabani was born in Damascus, Syria, but grew up in Great Britain, where he originally studied automotive systems engineering at Kingston University in Surrey. In the early 2000s, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he began working under Barham Salih as an official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, he moved to Iraq for one year to gain further experience as a PUK official. His excellent English enabled him to be an effective liaison officer between the PUK and the U.S. military. He also played a role in the drafting of the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), Iraq's interim constitution. In 2004, Qubad Talabani returned to the United States as the representative of the PUK and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). With the unification of the two KRG administrations in 2006, he became its first representative to the United States and began to play a very active and effective role. He is married to Sherri Kraham, who is Jewish. He has a very bright future.