One of the most brilliant minds you may ever meet is Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa. Known for creating The 99, his work and talent goes much deeper than the world of comics. He has used The 99 as a vehicle to create a cross-cultural dialogue, attracting the admiration of world leaders all over the globe. The group is named after Allah’s 99 attributes.

The 99 is the very first Islamic comic superhero group, and it has captured the imagination of the media and the world. Forbes named the group one of the world’s top 20 trends, and Dr. Naif has received multiple awards, not only for creating The 99, but also for his other work. U.S. President Barack Obama had high praise for him at his Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship, naming him as possibly the most innovative of all the entrepreneurs the summit viewed.

So what’s behind the success of The 99 and Al-Mutawa’s other creations? He has an incredible way of not only getting into the minds of his characters, but doing so in such a way that he’s able to translate one culture in a way that dispels common misunderstandings about that culture.

Although Dr. Naif himself is exceedingly brilliant, he is also extremely well-educated, so one could argue that his education plays an important role in his ability to pull this off. Al-Mutawa has studied psychology extensively, earning a Masters and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. He also has a Masters in Organizational Psychology and an MBA.

While working on his undergraduate degree at Tuft’s University, Al-Mutawa triple-majored in English literature, clinical psychology, and history. What a perfect combination of specialties to bring about the creation of a group such as The 99 that is able to foster dialogue between the Middle East and the West.

But his life has been impacted by more than just education, as he has witnessed firsthand the horrors of intolerance while working in Kuwait with former prisoners of war and Bellevue Hospital’s Survivors of Political Torture division in New York. It was Al-Mutawa’s experiences working with these groups that gave him the passion to portray the Islamic society in a way that Western culture could truly understand it.

Dr. Naif keeps busy, working as a professor of medicine at Kuwait University and a licensed psychologist in New York. Al-Mutawa also founded the Soor Center for Psychological Counseling and Assessment and belongs to a couple of World Economic Forum groups.

Al-Mutawa has also received numerous honors, including the title of one of the world’s 500 Most Powerful Arabs, which he received from Arabian Business. Gulf Business also named him among the Top Most Powerful Arabs in 2012. Dr. Naif has also won awards for his creativity, capturing the sixth position on the list of the world’s Seven Most Influential Designers by Forbes China.

So what’s next for Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa? This is a man who could go anywhere he chooses to go.