Profile: Shariff Hassan Sheik Adan

By Abdirahman Koronto
BBC correspondent in Nairobi

Somalia's new parliament speaker, 58-year-old businessman Shariff Hassan Sheik Adan, is known in Somalia for his commitment to reconciliation and his relief aid work.

The father of 22 children is a relative newcomer to politics, joining the regional government of Bay in the south of country, where he was born, four years ago.

He has three wives and is mainly based in Somalia, but travels between his business interests in Kenya and Dubai and his children who live in Australia, Kenya and the United States.

After finishing his secondary school education in the capital Mogadishu in 1977, Mr Adan went into livestock and from humble beginnings built up a successful business in the Bay region.

Humble

In the 1980s he branched out into the export and import business, trading livestock, food and building materials with Kenya.

His company transported food for the World Food Programme and Unicef, and he took on the post of United Nations Development Programme facilitator for a year in 1994.

A humble man, he was well known in Somalia's business community when he entered politics in 2000 as a member of the short-lived Bay regional government.

It collapsed after a year and he went on to become an MP in the transitional national government of President Abdulkassim Salat Hassan.

Not recognised for being a gifted speaker, he gave a lack-lustre campaign speech ahead of his election as parliament speaker, but his rousing acceptance speech surprised everyone.

The MPs who voted for him say they chose him because of his reputation for honesty.

He will chair a parliament that is set to elect a president on 22 September 2004, which is hoped will form the country's first central government in 13 years.