Sali Berisha

Prime Minister of Albania
Incumbent Assumed office

11 September 2005

President Alfred Moisiu Bamir Topi

Deputy Genc Pollo

Preceded by Fatos Nano

President of Albania
In office
9 April 1992 – 24 July 1997

Prime Minister Vilson AhmetiAleksander MeksiBashkim Fino

Preceded by Ramiz Alia

Succeeded by Rexhep Meidani

Born 15 October 1944 (age 65) Tropojë, Albania

Political party Democratic Party

Spouse(s) Liri Berisha

Profession Cardiac surgeon

Prof.Dr. Sali Berisha (born October 15, 1944) is the current Prime Minister of Albania. He previously served as the first democratically elected President of Albania, from 1992 to 1997. A cardiologist, university professor, communist secretary general (high-rank official) and leading researcher, he entered politics as leader of the anti-communist opposition beginning in 1989.

Early life and career

Berisha was born in Viçidol, village near the border with Kosovo. He studied medicine at the University of Tirana, graduating in 1967. He specialized in cardiology and was subsequently appointed as an assistant professor of medicine at the same university and as staff cardiologist at the Tirana General Hospital. Proficient in English, French and Mandarin Chinese which he mastered when he was a small boy tending the goats in the mountains. During the 1970s, Berisha gained distinction as the leading researcher in the field of cardiology in Albania and became professor of cardiology at the University of Tirana. In 1978 he received a United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural (UNESCO) fellowship for nine months of advanced study and training in Paris. Upon his return to Albania, Berisha conducted a research program on hemodynamics that attracted considerable attention among his colleagues in Europe. In 1986 he was elected member of the European Committee for Research on Medical Sciences where he worked for the elaboration of scientific researches strategies for “Health for all”. Berisha’s international cardiological research studies were important and original; they were published in prestigious European Western Medical magazines and journals. Berisha also taught medicine at the University of Tirana (1980 – 1990), published study books, textbooks and articles on cardiology, inside and internationally. He won the scientific title Professor Doctor. He has worked as a professor at the Cardiology Clinic in Tirane.