Muammar Gaddafi was a Chairperson.
Muammar Gaddafi . He governed Libya as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then as the `` Brotherly Leader '' of the Great Socialist People 's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011 . From 1999 , Gaddafi rejected Arab socialism and encouraged economic privatisation , rapprochement with Western nations , and Pan-Africanism ; he was Chairperson of the African Union from 2009 -- 10 .