Salva Kiir Mayardit

Vice President of Sudan and President of South Sudan 2005 – present. Took on the Presidency after the death of John Garang – iconic leader of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM). Formerly head of the SPLA’s military wing, Kiir is a soldier rather than an intellectual and has steered South Sudan to independence, when under Garang’s ideology the SPLA fought for a united Sudan under a representative government. Kiir is popular in the South, and was elected with 93 percent of the vote in 2010.