Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, poised to become Yemen's next president, has served as the country's vice president for the past 17 years.

In November, Yemen's long-time autocratic president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, transferred constitutional powers to Hadi as part of a Gulf-backed deal implemented after 10 months of protests urging Mr. Saleh to yield power.

The transfer was part of Yemen's move toward democracy. Hadi has since been overseeing constitutional reform, restructuring the country's armed forces and clearing the way for multi-party elections in 2014.

The 66-year-old Hadi is a former military commander from Yemen's south. Mr. Saleh appointed him vice president in 1994 after the country's north-south civil war.

Hadi was born in 1946 in the southern governorate of Abyan.

He graduated in his late teens from the Military School of Aden. He later underwent officer training at the Royal Military Academy in Britain and earned a graduate degree from the Nasser Military Academy in Egypt.