Philip Joseph Pierre (born 18 September 1954) is a Saint Lucian politician currently serving as the

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

of Saint Lucia since 28 July 2021. Pierre serves as the Minister for Finance, Economic Development and the Youth Economy. He is the Leader of the

Saint Lucia Labour Party The Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) is a social democratic political party in Saint Lucia. It currently holds 13 of the 17 seats in the House of Assembly. History The party was established in 1949, backed by the Saint Lucia Workers Cooperative ...

since 18 June 2016. He has represented the Castries East constituency in the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible gove ...

since 1997. Pierre previously served as Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation and International Financial Services from 1997 to 2000; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Port Services and Transport from 2011 to 2016; and as Leader of the Opposition from 2016 to 2021.

Early life

Pierre's mother Evelyn was a schoolteacher, and his father Auguste was a policeman. He studied at Saint Mary's College, then completed a BA (hons) in economics and a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accoun ...

from the University of the West Indies. After graduation, he taught at Saint Mary's College and worked as a trainee manager at J.Q. Charles Ltd. Pierre then entered the finance industry: he worked as an audit clerk at

Coopers & Lybrand PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

and Pannell Kerr Forster, and as a financial controller at Stanthur Co. Ltd. From 1985 to 1994, Pierre was the Director of the National Research and Development Corporation. He was also Chief Executive of his own

management consultancy Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultant ...

firm, Philip J. Pierre Business Services Ltd., from 1990 to 1997.

Politics

Pierre joined the

(SLP) in 1985, and served as the party treasurer from 1986 to 1992. In 1992, he contested the general elections for the first time in Castries East, but did not win. After serving as the SLP chairman from 1992 to 1996, Pierre ran again in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

and won. In the resulting SLP government led by

Kenny Anthony Kenny Davis Anthony (born 8 January 1951Government page on Anthony
.) is a

, Pierre served as Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation and International Financial Services from 1997 to 2000. Pierre was re-elected to the

from Castries East in the general elections of 2001, 2006, and 2011. In 2011, he was sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Port Services, and Transportation. Pierre retained his seat in the 2016 general election, but the SLP lost the election. Kenny Anthony resigned as party leader; Pierre was then elected as his successor on 18 June 2016. He also became the parliamentary Leader of the Opposition. Pierre is a member of the

Commonwealth Parliamentary Association The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), previously known as the Empire Parliamentary Association, is an organisation which works to support good governance, democracy and human rights. In 1989 the patron of the CPA was the Head ...

(CPA). He also joined the Assembly of

Caribbean Community The Caribbean Community (CARICOM or CC) is an intergovernmental organization that is a political and economic union of 15 member states (14 nation-states and one dependency) throughout the Caribbean. They have primary objectives to promote econo ...

Parliamentarians, attending its inaugural 1996 meeting in

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

. Pierre led the SLP in the 2021 general election, where the party won a majority of seats. He was sworn in as Prime Minister of Saint Lucia on 28 July 2021.

References

, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Pierre, Philip Living people 1954 births Members of the House of Assembly of Saint Lucia Saint Lucia Labour Party politicians University of the West Indies alumni Prime Ministers of Saint Lucia Deputy Prime Ministers of Saint Lucia Economy ministers of Saint Lucia Finance ministers of Saint Lucia Infrastructure ministers of Saint Lucia Postal services ministers of Saint Lucia Transport ministers of Saint Lucia Youth ministers of Saint Lucia