Barham Ahmed Salih Qassim was born on September 8, 1960 in Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan. He joined the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) movement in late 1976 and later the PUK resistance in 1979, when he was arrested by the Ba'athist regime during Saddam’s reign twice on charges of involvement in the Kurdish national movement and spent 43 days in detention in a Special Investigation Commission prison in Kirkuk where he was tortured. Once released, he finished high school, and after continuous persecution, he left for the United Kingdom to flee Iraq. He earned his Doctor of Engineering in Statistics and Computer Applications from the University of Liverpool in 1987, and his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and Construction from the University of Cardiff in 1983. He worked as a consultant to an engineering corporation in the UK.
From 1991-2001, Salih served in Washington as the representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and the PUK to North America. In that capacity, he was the organization’s top diplomat in the U.S. He was elected to the PUK leadership in 1991.
After the fall of the Baathist regime, he became Deputy Prime Minister in the Interim Iraqi Government (in mid-2004), Minister of Planning in the Transitional Government (in 2005), and Deputy Prime Minister in the elected Iraqi Government (Nouri al-Maliki's Cabinet) in charge of the economic portfolio and Head of the Economic Committee. Representing the Iraqi Government, he launched the International Compact with Iraq – an initiative of mutual commitment between Iraq and the international community to help Iraq in meeting its obligations of "building a prosperous, democratic and federal country, in peace with itself and with the region and the world".
Salih was tasked by the Kurdish leadership to head the Kurdistani electoral slate and, was designated to form the sixth Kurdish government. Hence, he served as the Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdish Region from 2009 – 2011. His term was marked by a turbulence time with the rise of an opposition (Movement for Change) to challenge the government while his own party was scrambling to stay together after losing the stronghold city of Sulaymaniyah. He survived the first motion of no confidence in Iraqi Kurdistan following the 2011 Kurdish protests in Iraq. He relinquished the post of Prime Minister to Nechervan Idris Barzani on 5 April 2012 as part of a political agreement between the ruling KDP–PUK coalition.
In September 2017, Salih announced that he was leaving the PUK and forming a new opposition party, the Coalition for Democracy and Justice, to compete in the forthcoming Iraqi Kurdistan elections. Following the death of PUK leader Jalal Talabani and the Kurdish opposition leader Nawshirwan Mustafa, the alliance was seen to have the potential to change the Kurdish political landscape. He said he hoped to gather all the other opposition parties, including Gorran and Komal, to challenge the governing KDP–PUK alliance.
In October 2018, the two parties sparred over who they should nominate for the Iraqi presidency, a position that has been reserved for a Kurd since 2005. Though the September 2018 elections placed the KDP in the lead in the Kurdish region, the PUK succeeded in pushing through Salih, over the KDP’s strong opposition. He received 219 votes and defeated Fuad Hussein who secured 22 votes.
