The Hon. Stephen Cadiz is a politician in

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

. A member of parliament for Chaguanas East, he assumed the portfolio of Minister of Trade and Industry on Wednesday 2 June 2010. A prominent businessman and social activist, Minister Cadiz headed the Ministry responsible for the country's diversification drive, i.e. developing the non-energy services and manufacturing sectors to achieve long-term sustainable economic growth. After the PNM won the

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

in 2015, Cadiz returned to private life.

Early life

Minister Cadiz is of French and Spanish heritage and is originally from

Arima Arima, officially The Royal Chartered Borough of Arima is the easternmost and second largest in area of the three boroughs of Trinidad and Tobago. It is geographically adjacent to Sangre Grande and Arouca at the south central foothills of the ...

, the largest town in the Eastern part of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

. In 1987 in the midst of a severe recession, he started Tropical Power Limited in Edinburgh Village,

Chaguanas The Borough of Chaguanas is the largest municipality (83,489 at the 2011 census) and fastest-growing
– Afr ...

. Based on his own knowledge of the power generation services industry, Minister Cadiz grew his company from a locally based entity into a regional organization that specializes in the sale, rental and service of commercial and industrial generators. Minister Cadiz first came to prominence in Trinidad and Tobago through his social activism in mid-2005. However, he had already been involved in various citizens' groups and in particular environmental causes, for a number of years. Following the murder of his employee, Keith Noel, and angered by the rising crime rate and the apparent indifference of the authorities to the deteriorating social situation, Minister Cadiz formed the Keith Noel 136 Committee. The 136 was Keith's victim number. The committee organised a number of large social activities, including gathering in excess of 127,000 signatures on a petition asking for the president of the Republic to intervene and get the government to make positive moves in dealing with a runaway crime situation. On October 24 the committee staged the famous Death March against crime in 2005. Over 15,000 persons attended the March. Later on, the committee organised the first-ever referendum in the country, mailing out over 930,000 ballots to the electorate. Realising that civic activism was not having the desired effect, Minister Cadiz decided to enter the political arena, in order to affect the change he believed was necessary for the country to move forward. In his first foray into politics he represented Chaguanas East as a member of the

United National Congress The United National Congress ( UNC or UNCTT) is one of two major political parties in Trinidad and Tobago. The UNC is a Centre-left politics, centre-left party. It was founded in 1989 by Basdeo Panday, a Trinidadian lawyer, economist, trade unio ...

(UNC) of the People's Partnership, and after their victory at the polls on 24 May 2010, was sworn in as a minister in the Government of

on Friday 28 May 2010. His first appointment was as the Minister of Trade and Industry with subsequent appointments as the Minister of Tourism and then Minister of Transport. After the UNC lost the general election in 2015, Cadiz returned to his business, where he is still active as of today.

References

External links

* http://mti-gov-tt.web35.winsvr.net/Aboutus/MinisterofTradeandIndustry.aspx * http://www.ttparliament.org/members.php?mid=54&id=STZ10 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cadiz, Stephen Members of the House of Representatives (Trinidad and Tobago) United National Congress politicians Living people Government ministers of Trinidad and Tobago People from Arima Year of birth missing (living people) Trinidad and Tobago people of French descent Trinidad and Tobago people of Spanish descent