Prince Turki Al-Faisal is a co-founder and trustee of the King Faisal Foundation and currently serves as chairman of its Center for Research and Islamic Studies. He has also been an adviser at the Royal Court since 1973.

Between 1977 and 2001, Prince Turki was the director general of the General Intelligence Directorate (GID).

In October 2002, Prince Turki became the Kingdom’s ambassador to the UK and Ireland. In 2005 he took up an ambassadorial role in the US, a position he held until his retirement in 2007.

He received an honorary Ph.D. in Law from the University of Ulster in Ireland in 2010, and another honorary Ph.D. in International Politics from the University of Hankuk in Korea in 2011. He is a visiting Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University.

Prince Turki holds a bachelor’s degree from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he studied alongside former US President Bill Clinton.

He also studied at Princeton, University of Cambridge, and the University of London, where he attended courses in Islamic law and jurisprudence.

Prince Turki recently received one of Afghanistan’s highest honors — the Ghazi Mir Bacha Khan medal — for his work in support of Afghan independence.

Afghan Minister of Finance Mohammad Qayoumi and the country’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Sayed Jalal Karim, made the presentation at a ceremony in the Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Hall on Monday, which included a video message from Afghan President Ashraf Ghani congratulating Prince Turki on his medal.

“The Ghazi Mir Bacha Khan medal is a symbol of honor and admiration awarded to exceptional personalities to acknowledge their remarkable efforts on behalf of Afghanistan,” Ghani said.

Prince Turki thanked the Afghan leader for the award, and expressed his desire for peace and stability in Afghanistan.