Noraini Ahmad

Noraini binti Ahmad (Jawi: نورعيني بنت أحمد; born November 7, 1967) is a Malay politician. She is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada where she obtained her Bachelor of Commerce (double major in quantitative analysis and finance) in 1991, followed by a master's degree in business administration (MBA) from Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) in 2005. Datuk Seri Dr. Noraini Ahmad subsequently obtained her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Development Management from Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) in 2016. She then enrolled into the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program at Asia e-University (AeU). The title of her DBA dissertation is “The Phenomenological Study of Women Entrepreneurs and their Impact on Socio-Economic Growth in Malaysia”. She will be one of the first Malaysians to complete the DBA in AeU via the APEL Q system. She completed her viva on 11 November 2021 and received positive feedback on her dissertation from examiners who requested no further amendments/corrections upon submission. They stated it was well written and the methodology was sound, which is a testament to her vast knowledge on women's entrepreneurship in Malaysia. She completed her second PhD in April 2022.

She is a Malaysian politician from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a component party of Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition which is aligned with Perikatan Nasional (PN) alliance.

She is now serving her second term as the Minister of Higher Education under the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration led by Prime Minister Dato' Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. She has held this position since August 2021 after having served her first term under the PN administration led by former Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin from March 2020 until her resignation in August 2021.

She has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Parit Sulong since March 2008 and Deputy President of UMNO cum Women Chief since June 2018. She has also served as Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration from April 2019 to March 2020, when she resigned. Additionally, she was the Deputy Minister of Human Resources under the BN administration led by former Prime Ministers Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Razak and former Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam from March 2008 to April 2009, as well as the Women Youth Chief of UMNO from 2004 to 2008.

Datuk Seri Dr. Noraini Ahmad has held other positions such as the Chairperson of the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) from 2013 to 2018 and led several federal agencies, including the Malaysian Network Information Centre and Astronautic Technology.

On the international fora she became the first Malaysian to be elected as chairman of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) from 2016 to 2019. She was elected through voting at the 62nd Commonwealth Parliamentarians' Conference in London, United Kingdom. She garnered 53 votes beating Joyce Watson of Wales who received 15 votes, Poto Williams of New Zealand (10 votes) and Linda Reid from Canada who received 9 votes. . Provided by Wikipedia