Manumatavai Tupou-Roosen is the first woman to be appointed the Director General of the

Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) is an intergovernmental agency established in 1979 to facilitate regional co-operation and co-ordination on fisheries policies between its member states in order to achieve conservation and optimum u ...

, having taken up the role in 2018. She replaced James Movick and was promoted to this position after serving as the head of the Agency's legal services department. She is currently the Acting Deputy Vice -Chancellor and Vice-president for Regional Campuses and Global Engagement at the University of the South Pacific Tupou is a citizen of

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

. She earned her undergraduate degree and a Master of Law degree, in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

and the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

. Tupou was awarded a

Commonwealth Scholarship The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) is an international programme under which Commonwealth governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries. History The plan was originally proposed ...

, and used it to study Law at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

. Tupou first visited the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency while working on her PhD, and decided that is where she should work.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tupou-Roosen, Manumatavai Tongan lawyers 21st-century Tongan people 21st-century Tongan women Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of Canterbury Faculty of Law alumni