NEW GOVERNOR ANNOUNCED

LISA PHILLIPS TO SUCCEED MARK CAPES IN APRIL 2016 AS GOVERNOR OF ST HELENA, ASCENSION AND TRISTAN DA CUNHA

Lisa Phillips has been appointed Governor of St Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, in succession to Mark Capes. Lisa (photo attached) will take up her appointment in St Helena in late April 2016 after visiting Tristan da Cunha for its bicentenary celebrations.

Governor Mark Capes will arrive in St Helena on 30 January 2016, following overseas business and leave, and will depart the Island on Friday 18 March 2016 to carry out official business in Paris and Corsica connected with the Napoleonic bicentenary celebrations.  From 18 March, Head of the Governor’s Office, Sean Burns, will become Acting Governor until Lisa Phillips arrives at St Helena on the RMS on Tuesday 26 April 2016.

Lisa is currently Head of Office in Kenya for the Department for International Development (DFID), based in Nairobi. During her career – much of it spent with DFID – she has worked in a wide range of policy areas, overseas posts and in a number of leadership roles. 

On her appointment as the 65^th Governor of St Helena and the first ever woman appointed to the substantive role, Lisa said:

“I am so excited to be taking up the role of Governor of St Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha and cannot wait to be on the Islands and to get going. 

“With the opening of the Airport, 2016 will be a year of change for St Helena.  I am looking forward to working in partnership with the Island and her people to get the most benefit out of that change, while preserving the very special place that is St Helena”.

Reflecting on his four years on the Island, Governor Capes added:

“Tamara and I will leave St Helena shortly after over four tremendously busy and satisfying years.  Much has been achieved during those years on so many fronts and I am hugely grateful to Councillors and colleagues in St Helena Government for their support and for their commitment to moving the Island forward. 

“It has been both a pleasure and a privilege to work with such a talented and enthusiastic team.  Even now it still amazes me how such a small community, with limited resources, has coped so well with the diverse and challenging demands placed on it in recent years as we have prepared to meet the changes ahead.”

“Knowing the Island and her people as well as I do now, I have no doubt, as I hand over to my successor, that St Helena is on course for a bright and prosperous future.”

Councillor Lawson Henry, on behalf of Executive Council, concluded:

“I very much welcome the appointment of Lisa Phillips as our first Lady Governor –    I am sure she will be given a special St Helena welcome when she takes up her post in April.  As the first Lady Governor she will no doubt go down in the history books, but I hope too that she will also be written about for what she brings to the Island and what she is able to help us achieve at such a crucial time in our history.  So welcome Lisa – we all look forward to meeting you.

“I would also like to pay sincere tribute to Governor Mark Capes for the time he has served as our Governor on St Helena and for all he has done in taking the Island forward, especially for his four years of work on the Airport project. 

“I would like to take this opportunity of wishing Mark and Tamara all the very best in their future, wherever that might be.”

SHG

22 January 2016