Mohamed Khaled Nordin

Dato' Seri Haji Mohamed Khaled bin Nordin is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Minister of Defence since December 2023 and previously served as the Minister of Higher Education prior to the 2023 cabinet reshuffle for the second term from December 2022 to December 2023 in the Unity Government administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. He had previously served as Deputy Minister of Works, Minister of Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development and his first term as Minister of Higher Education in the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration under former Prime Ministers Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Razak from 1999 to 2013. Additionally, he served as the 15th Menteri Besar of Johor after he contested and became a Member of the Johor State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Permas from May 2013 to May 2018. Throughout his political career, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for 3 different Johorean federal constituencies, which are Johor Bahru from October 1990 to March 2004, Pasir Gudang from March 2004 to May 2013 and currently for Kota Tinggi since November 2022. He is a member and the Division Chief of Pasir Gudang of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a component party of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. He has served as one of the Vice Presidents of UMNO since June 2018 and had also served as the State Chairman of UMNO of Johor from January to December 2023.