Juliet Holness (née Landell; born July 16, 1971) is a Jamaican politician who is the current Speaker of the House of Representatives and Member for Saint Andrew East Rural. She is married to

Andrew Holness Andrew Michael Holness, (born 22 July 1972) is a Jamaican politician who has served as Prime Minister of Jamaica since 3 March 2016, having previously served from 2011 to 2012, and as Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) since 2011. Ho ...

, the

Prime Minister of Jamaica The prime minister of Jamaica () is Jamaica's head of government, currently Andrew Holness. Holness, as leader of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), was sworn in as prime minister on 7 September 2020, having been re-elected as a result ...

Early life and education

Holness was born in

Spanish Town Spanish Town (Jamaican Patois: Spain) is the capital and the largest town in the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of St. Catherine, Jamaica, St. Catherine in the historic county of Middlesex, Jamaica, Middlesex, Jamaica. It was the Spanish and Briti ...

, St. Catherine. She attended St. Catherine High School and undertook

Sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

studies at Wolmers' Girls' School. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting and economics, and a master's degree in accounting, from the

University of the West Indies, Mona A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

Professional career

Holness' first full-time job after graduating was with

KPMG KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...

, a multinational professional services and accountancy firm. Speaking in 2021, she said: "I got a promotion about every six months, which was unprecedented, because I saw the company as my company. I was always very aggressive about collecting their money." In 1997, she joined

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alon ...

(PwC) and worked her way up to the role of senior auditor before leaving when she was pregnant with her first child. Afterwards, she worked for a period as an accountant for Jamaica Biscuit Company. Holness was also a fellow of the

Association of Chartered Certified Accountants The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is the global professional accounting body offering the Chartered Certified Accountant qualification (CCA). Founded in 1904, It is now the fourth-largest professional accounting body ...

. She has also worked as a freelance accounting consultant, real estate developer, and

financial controller A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executi ...

Political career

After her husband, became Prime Minister of Jamaica in 2016, Holness announced the launch of the Save Our Boys Foundation, which was aimed at helping street boys. Holness was elected to Parliament in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and was re-elected in

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

. In 2023, she was elected Speaker.

Personal life

In 1997 she married

, whom she had met as a student at St. Catherine High School during the 1980s. They have two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holness, Juliet Living people Members of the House of Representatives of Jamaica 21st-century Jamaican women politicians Spouses of prime ministers of Jamaica People from Saint Catherine Parish Speakers of the House of Representatives of Jamaica Women legislative speakers Members of the 14th Parliament of Jamaica 1971 births