( Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan born in Abu Dhabi, Emirate of Abu Dhabi, Trucial States (now the UAE) 6 May 1918 – died 2 November 2004 ) was the ruler of Abu Dhabi for more than 30 years (6 August 1966 – 2 November 2004). He was the founding father and the principal driving force behind the formation of the United Arab Emirates, uniting seven emirates, and becoming the Union's first Raīs (President), a post which he held for a period of almost 33 years (1971 until his death in 2004). In 1976 he founded the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which grew to be the world's third-largest sovereign investment fund by 2020, with nearly a trillion US dollars' worth of assets under management. He is popularly referred to in the UAE as the Father of the Nation.