Ghassan Hitto

Ghassan Hitto
Ghassan Hitto in 2013
Prime Minister of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces Acting
In office 18 March 2013 – 14 September 2013
President	Moaz al-Khatib George Sabra (acting) Ahmad al-Jarba
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Ahmad Tu'mah al-Khader
Personal details
Born	1963 (age 53–54) Damascus, Syria
Political party	Independent
Alma mater	Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis Indiana Wesleyan University
Religion	Sunni Islam

Ghassan Hitto (Arabic: غسان هيتو‎‎; born 1963) was the first Prime Minister of an interim government established by the Syrian opposition National Coalition. Born in Damascus into a Kurdish family, he left Syria to the U.S. in 1980, became a naturalized American citizen and worked as an information technology executive and lived in Texas until recently. In late 2012, he relocated to Turkey. He was elected prime minister on 18 March 2013 by a narrow margin over former Syrian Arab Republic agricultural minister Assad Mustafa. Hitto resigned on 8 July 2013.

Hitto graduated from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis in 1989 with degrees in mathematics and computer science. He also received an M.B.A. at Indiana Wesleyan University in 1994.

Hitto is a former businessman who has lived in the United States for decades, most recently in Murphy, Texas. Before joining the opposition, he worked with Inovar, a Telecommunication firm, from 2001 to 2012.

Hitto is married to Suzanne Hitto, an American schoolteacher; they have four children, Amer, Imran, Obaida, Lama all born in the United States. He has worked in the technology sector and supported the private school Brighter Horizons Academy founded in 1989 by the Islamic Services Foundation (ISF). He is also a founding member of the Muslim Legal Fund of America created after the 11 September 2001 attacks to give legal aid to Muslims.