The life of HRH Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud reads like fiction rather than fact. Born the son of a King in a desert nation that found untold wealth under the sands, he showed managerial talent that allowed him by dint of hard work and competence to take responsibility for the defence of his nation.

However unlikely the story sounds, the facts speak for themselves.

Born in 1928, four years before his father, King Abdul Aziz Al Saud finally brought the feuding tribes of the Arabian Peninsula as a unified whole, the juvenile Prince Sultan could be found in his early years on the fringes of power, accompanying his father on official business, sitting in on court proceedings and absorbing the complex cut and thrust of government almost by osmosis.

Formal education was in the traditions that had served the Najd rulers for generations. In a room at the Murabba’ Palace, later known as the ‘Princes School,’ he studied the Qur’an and Islamic jurisprudence from the best scholars available and became well versed in the history, poetry and languages of his tradition.

With formal traditional academic education and management practice from observation and involvement, at the age of 15 Prince Sultan was given his first taste of responsibility. Charged with the leadership of the Royal Guard, he had to employ all his knowledge of the culture of the retainers who had protected his father through the sometimes turbulent journey to power, yet produce and run an efficient guard. He achieved this commendably, though organising fighting men three and four times his age, gaining their trust and respect as a leader and culturally aware young man.

This formative experience sharpened his native talent to the extent that only four years later, he was appointed the Governor of Riyadh. His managerial skills were forced to take a quantum leap, for though Riyadh was but a mud city at the time, he was tasked with planning the nation’s capital and literally, laying the foundations for the future.

For six years, Prince Sultan oversaw the building of Riyadh, directed the finances and laid out the plans for the city. That successfully under way, he was then delegated to another vital ministry.

In 1953 when Price Faisal arrived at the Ministry of Agriculture, there was little organisation and food production for the Kingdom was very much on an ‘ad hoc’ basis with little acknowledgement for the burgeoning population’s increasing demands. Within two years, having established that irrigation and large scale organised production and delivery systems were needed and had initiated the projects to build them, he had once again demonstrated his ability to set up and initialise a viable bureaucracy.

The next area for his now widely recognised talents was the Ministry of Communications. Oil, the foundation of the Kingdom’s wealth, was an international business requiring rapid and efficient telecommunications. Prince Sultan spent seven years putting in place and constantly upgrading the most modern communications systems of the day, enabling the Kingdom’s primary industry to tap and interact with local and world markets with maximum efficiency and effect.

In 1962, Prince Sultan was appointed Minister of Defence. This was where he was to spend the major part of his professional life. Calling on all his skills and experience, he built the defence forces, now necessary to protect the oil reserves of the Kingdom, into the modern technological force it is today. It was a task different in style from his days as Head of the Royal Guard, but utilising the same interpersonal skills that served hi so well then.

Other early experiences stayed with Prince Sultan notably, the deeply held belief and one of the pillars of Islam, Charity. Always generous with time and material support, it is typical of his love of organisation and efficiency that he founded the Prince Abdulaziz Charity Foundation, which is dedicated to getting help rapidly to where it is needed. Covering areas of practical help – medical aid, assistance with education, support for the elderly and similar areas, it also invests in the future leaders of the kingdom Prince Sultan was instrumental in building, the young. Research and education in technology, science and industry receives great support from the foundation.

At 74 and after a life of commitment to Saud Arabia, Prince Sultan shows little sign of slowing down. The organisation and running of the Kingdom’s infrastructure has been his life’s work and he manifests no signs of stopping yet.