Wearing a cheap-looking jacket, beige trousers, white socks and a pair of decidedly informal pale shoes, the short, slightly built man posing in a meeting-of-the-leaders photo shoot this week doesn't look very 'presidential'.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looks like one of the countless small people of Iran who would invite you to sit on the carpets of their living room floor, suck tea through jagged lumps of sugar and discuss the ways of the world; passionate, with strong principles and stronger ideas, but little or no real power.
Mr Ahmadinejad may look and act like the Iranian everyman, but the fact that today he goes before the Majlis (Iran's parliament) to complete his ascension to the presidency means that is patently no longer the case. From little-known Tehran mayor and rank outsider in the presidential race a few weeks ago, he has become one of the most-watched politicians in the world.
To 'watched', you can add 'speculated about', for this darkest of dark horses won his landslide election victory in the world's second-largest oil producer. More pertinent than oil, perhaps, is the fear that Iran is once again a country where all the political power is held in the hands of ultra-conservative Islamists who seem intent on developing nuclear power, maybe even nuclear weapons. No wonder people are asking: who is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?
Born the son of a blacksmith in a village near Tehran in 1956, Mr Ahmadinejad's parents moved the family to the capital when he was one year old. In 1976, he won a university place to study civil engineering and before long became a prominent figure in the student movement that was so influential during the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Mr Ahmadinejad volunteered for and served with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. He is reported to have served in an elite unit deployed in 'extraterritorial' missions in northern Iraq, before becoming chief engineer of the sixth army.