As president, he has built foreign relations with countries in the west, and has slowly started to destroy the cult of personality of Saparmurat Niyazov.

Berdimuhamedow was born on June 29, 1957 in Babarab in what is now the Geok Tepe etrap ("district") of Ahal province. He graduated from the Turkmen State Medical Institute in 1979 and entered a career in dentistry. He also received a PhD in medical sciences in Moscow. By 1992 he had become part of the dentistry faculty at the Medical Institute.

In an interview when asked about his life experience Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow said:

"It is too early for me to write a detailed biography. My biography is in many respects typical of people of my generation."

On influencing factors to his character:

"My parents always managed to maintain the hospitable atmosphere in the family. They were happy at an opportunity to communicate openly with people - friends and relatives. They always took active part in the resolving of other people's problems and difficulties...(more)...this necessity in empathy my parents had instilled in me in the childhood influenced, to the considerable extent, my choice to devote my life to medicine...(more)...readiness to help a neighbor is peculiar to the society as a whole, it may characterize the strength and moral health of the nation. The Turkmen literature has many splendid authors who gave the world their immortal works that express the profound Turkmen people's wisdom in a concentrated form. I admire Magtymguly, Andalib, Azadi, Kemine... Due to my medical education I read a lot the works of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), a great scholar of the medieval times, with great interest. The expanse of his interests and the depth of the scientist's judgments struck me. Ibn Sina was a great man not only as a doctor but as a philosopher and thinker as well."

In 1995, during the rule of Saparmurat Niyazov, Berdimuhamedow became head of the dentistry center of the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry. In 1997, he was named Health Minister, and he then became Deputy Prime Minister in 2001. In April 2004, Niyazov suspended Berdimuhamedow's salary for three months because healthcare workers were also not being paid.

The Health Ministry was responsible for carrying out Niyazov's notorious order to close all hospitals outside of the capital city and major regional towns in 2005.

Following the death of Niyazov, who had not named a successor, in December 2006, Berdimuhamedow became the head of the commission to organize Niyazov's state funeral. This immediately led to speculation that he was a front-runner in the race to appoint a successor to Niyazov in the power vacuum that followed his death.

The State Security Council of Turkmenistan appointed Berdimuhamedow acting president. The Council stated in its announcement that Öwezgeldi Ataýew, who as the Chairman of the Assembly of Turkmenistan was to become the acting president, was not appointed "in view of the fact that the prosecutor-general had instituted criminal proceedings against him."