The Right Honourable Portia Simpson-Miller (born 12 December 1945 in Wood Hall, St. Catherine Parish) is, as of 30 March 2006, the Prime Minister of Jamaica. She replaced outgoing Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, becoming the first female head of government of the nation and the third in the Anglophone Caribbean following Eugenia Charles of Dominica and Janet Jagan of Guyana. She also holds the position of president of the ruling People’s National Party.
In the PNP’s internal vote to elect Patterson’s successor, held on 26 February 2006, she received 1,775 votes, while her nearest rival, national security minister Dr. Peter Phillips, took 1,538 votes.
Simpson-Miller had been the Minister of Local Government and Sport since October 2002. She previously served as Minister of Labour, Welfare and Sports from 1989 to 1993, when she re-entered parliament for South West St. Andrew, the PNP having boycotted the elections called in 1983; she was first elected, for that constituency, in 1976. She was Minister of Labour and Welfare from 1993 to 1995, Minister of Labour, Social Security and Sports from 1995 to February 2000, and Minister of Tourism and Sports from February 2000 to October 2002. She was a Vice President of the PNP from 1978 to 2006. In appointing her first cabinet following her swearing-in, she also assumed the portfolio of defence minister.
Simpson-Miller holds a Bachelor of Arts in public administration from the Union Institute. She has since been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the Union Institute.
She is married to Errald Miller, formerly CEO of Cable & Wireless Jamaica Ltd.
Source: Wikipedia
