Meles Zenawi

Meles Zenawi (mĕ'lĕs zĕnä'wē), 1955-, Ethiopian political leader, prime minister of Ethiopia (1995-), b. Adwa. After two years of medical studies at the Univ. of Addis Ababa, he helped found the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in 1975, becoming its secretary-general in 1985. In 1989 he became chairman of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of opposition groups in which the TPLF was the leading constituent. Following the defeat of the military regime in 1991, Meles was elected transitional president; prime minister since 1995, he began his third term in 2005.