Khairy Jamaluddin often referred to by his initials KJ, was a Malaysian politician and now actively as a radio presenter and podcaster.
Khairy was born in Kuwait City, Kuwait. He had his secondary education at the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore and furthered his tertiary studies at Oxford University and University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom. While at Oxford, he studied at St Hugh’s College, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE). In 1998, he completed his master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory at UCL.
After leaving university, Khairy worked as a journalist for a period. He served as a presenter on the talkshow Dateline Malaysia. He also had a stint working for The Economist in 1999. Thereafter, Khairy became a Special Officer in the office of Abdullah Badawi, who was then the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. He was Abdullah’s Deputy Principal Private Secretary from 2003 to 2004.
He was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He has written for major publications including The Economist, Time and the Wall Street Journal .
He became closely involved in football during his pre-parliamentary career. He holds a number of high-profile positions in the Malaysian football scene, and is involved in a number of football-related associations. In 2006, Khairy teamed-up with radio DJ Jason Lo (with whom he attended high school in Singapore) to produce the football-based reality TV show MyTeam.
On 9 September 2007, Khairy was chosen uncontested as the Vice-president of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) during the 44th FAM Congress, to serve from 2007 to 2010, replacing Tengku Mahkota Pahang then, Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.