Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani (born 1930) was a Saudi Arabian lawyer and minister of petroleum and mineral resources from 1962 to 1986. A major architect of the energy policies of his country, he served as an influential spokesman for Saudi Arabia and for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Ahmed Zaki Yamani was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in 1930. His father, Hassan Yamani, was a scholar of Islamic law and a qadhi, or religious judge, whose patience, wisdom, and quiet sense of humor inspired his son as he grew up in Islam's holiest city, one of three children.

The young Yamani earned a bachelor's degree in law at Cairo University in 1951 and a master's degree in law at New York University in 1955. He graduated from Harvard law school in 1956. He later was awarded honorary degrees from institutions around the world, including Nihon University in Japan (1969), Osmania University in India (1975), Leobon...