Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud

On 22 December 2013, he was appointed as minister of education, replacing Faisal bin Abdullah Al Saud in the post. On 29 January 2015, Prince Khalid was appointed once again the governor of Makkah Province by King Salman.

He was named the best Arab personality in the field of solving issues related to Arab youth in 2012. The award was given by the Arab Youth Media Forum, which is currently being held in Manama under the sponsorship of Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa. In 2015, Prince Khalid was named the Cultural Personality of the Year by the Sharjah International Book Fair.

In 2010 he was mentioned as a future king when succession in the Al Saud passes on to the grandsons of King Abdulaziz. He was also considered to be among the possible contenders after Prince Nayef's death in June 2012. However, the other sons of King Faisal, Turki bin Faisal and Saud bin Faisal, were said to be regarded unfavourably within the royal family due to their perceived air of intellectual superiority. On the other hand, Prince Khalid might have advantages over brothers as a result of his long-term tenure as governor in that he is well known to the public.

Khalid bin Faisal was celebrated by the World Travel Awards as the World Travel Personality of the Year in 2010. This award is given to a personality whose achievements support the industry.

As governor, he played a major role in managing the annual Hajj in Makkah. According to leaked diplomatic cables, he visited Beirut in 2009 to meet with Lebanese parliamentarians. In June 2011, Prince Khalid presided at the opening of the Rabigh's expansion of its desalination plant.

On 16 May 2007, Khalid was appointed governor of Makkah Province by King Abdullah, replacing Prince Abdul Majeed bin Abdulaziz who died in office. The province includes the Muslim holy city of Makkah and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia, Jeddah. In 2010, he ordered hotels, restaurants, shops and wedding halls in the province to drop all their non-Arabic names and use Arabic only for signboards.

According to a leaked WikiLeaks cable, Prince Khalid went to extraordinary lengths to renovate his late father's palace to host a party for Prince Charles during his 2006 visit. The cable revealed that at the time Khalid had been living in the old palace which was in dire need of renovation. He directed a Western business associate to renovate the palace in three weeks and rewarded the businessman with $13,000 when Prince Charles was impressed. Khalid then built a new palace while the old palace was converted into a university.

Prince Khalid is an avid painter, poet and patron of the arts. In 1999, he founded Painting and Patronage to "build and foster valuable bridges of cultural, artistic and educational understanding between the Arab world and the international community". While he was governor of Asir, Khalid founded the Literary Club of Abha, the Abha Singing Festival, the Abha Prize for cultural excellence, and the Al-Miftaha Visual Arts Village in the capital city Abha. As governor of Makkah, he established the Cultural Council of Makkah. He is a close friend of Charles, Prince of Wales, who is a supporter of artistic painting.

After returning to Saudi Arabia, Prince Khalid served as director general of the Presidency of Youth Welfare in the ministry of labor and social affairs in 1967. His term lasted until April 1971 when he was appointed as governor of Asir Province, replacing Fahd bin Saad in the post. Khalid was governor of the province until 2007. He was credited with bringing the province a measure of modernity and prosperity. At the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, he sought to use its natural beauty and cool climate to attract Arab tourists. But many inhabitants were resentful that the oil-based welfare state had not provided for them.

In 1948, Prince Khalid attended Model School in Taif to receive secondary education. Like King Faisal's other children, Prince Khalid was educated abroad after completing secondary education in Saudi Arabia. He attended the Hun School of Princeton in New Jersey and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political economy from the University of Oxford in 1966.

Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud (Arabic: خالد بن فيصل ال سعود Khālid bin Fayṣal Āl Suʿūd; born 24 February 1940) is a Saudi Arabian politician, artist, and poet who is the governor of Makkah Province, in office from 2007 to 2013 and again since 2015. He was the Saudi minister of education from 2013 to 2015. He was also the governor of Asir Province from 1971 to 2007. He served as the adviser to King Salman.

Prince Khalid was born in Makkah on 24 February 1940. He is the third son of King Faisal. His mother is Haya bint Turki bin Abdulaziz Al Turki. Prince Khalid's full siblings are Prince Saad and Princess Noura.