* President Hosni Mubarak, 82, was thrust into office when Islamists gunned down his predecessor Anwar Sadat at a military parade in 1981. The burly former air force commander has proved a far more durable leader than anyone imagined at the time.
* He has resisted any significant political change even under pressure from the United States, which has poured billions of dollars of military and other aid into Egypt since it became the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, signing a treaty in 1979.
* Mubarak won the first multi-candidate presidential election in 2005 although the outcome was never in doubt and his main rival came a distant second.
* He has not said whether he will run for a sixth six-year term in 2011. Officials have indicated he probably will if he can, although questions about his health after surgery in Germany in March make this a constant subject of debate. If he does not run, many Egyptians believe he may try to hand power to his 47-year-old son Gamal. Both Mubaraks deny such a plan.
* Gamal, unlike his father and Egypt’s other presidents, does not have a military background.
—Reuters
