Miguel Diaz-Canel became the face of generational change in Cuba on Sunday, when Communist Party leaders tapped him to succeed Raul Castro as president in five years' time.

Diaz-Canel, 52, was formally elected as the first vice-president of Cuba's Council of State, putting him first in the line of succession to the presidency.

If Diaz-Canel takes office as planned in 2018, he would be the first leader in more than a half-century not to have the surname Castro.

An electrical engineer by training, and former education minister, Diaz-Canel has been one of the eight vice-presidents on the Council of Ministers since March.

He took the No 2 spot from Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, 82, who relinquished the post but remains among Cuba's vice-presidents.

Raul Castro is nearly 30 years his senior. So the announced change represents a stunning generational change in a country that over the decades has become renowned for the long political careers of Fidel Castro and Raul Castro firmly at Cuba's helm.

Diaz-Canel is however but one of a new generation of up-and-comers boldly leading Cuba into its post-Castro future.

Other political leaders of his generation include Marino Murillo, 52, an economist in charge of overseeing Castro's economic reforms; and Bruno Rodriguez, 55, who has been foreign minister since 2009.

As Castro's surprisingly spry political heir, Diaz-Canel cuts a starkly different profile from others in the revolutionary leadership, whose members are mostly in their 80s.

Raul Castro called on Sunday in a nationally broadcast speech the "historic" naming of Diaz-Canel a "final step in configuring the country's future leadership, through the slow and orderly transfer of the main leadership positions to new generations".

Castro recently limited a president's time in office to two five-year terms, to ensure that future leaders of the country are likely to be sprightlier than he and his older brother Fidel, who preceded him as president.

Indeed, if Diaz-Canel does come to lead Cuba, he will be the first leader of the country whose entire life has been lived during the time of the Castro brothers' leadership.

A former military man, Diaz-Canel also has been a university professor in his home province, Villa Clara. A careful and deliberate speaker, he was a leader of the Communist Youth Union, and went on an international "mission" to Nicaragua during the first leftist Sandinista government.

He rose up the political ranks, leading the party in Villa Clara in central Cuba, before being chosen to lead it in Holguin province in the east. He was bumped up to the Politburo in 2003.

(China Daily 02/26/2013 page10)