The Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles (population: 85,000), located about 1,000 miles east of Kenya and 900 miles northeast of Madagascar, sent a new ambassador to the U.S. in September 2012. Marie-Louise Potter succeeded Ronald Jean Jumeau, who had served as ambassador from Seychelles since September 2007, and is now ambassador for Climate Change and Small Island Developing States, resident in New York.
Born on March 15, 1959, in Seychelles, Potter earned degrees in political and social sciences in Seychelles and Cuba.
In 1992 and 1993, she was a delegate of the Seychelles People’s Party (Parti Lepep), then known as the Seychelles Progressive People’s Front (SPPF), to the constitutional commission that drew up the present Constitution of the Third Republic of Seychelles.
Potter served two consecutive terms as SPPF Member of the National Assembly for Beau Vallon, between 1993 and 2002, and was the director of the Ministry of Local Government, Youth and Sports in 1993.
First elected to the Parti Lepep Central Committee in 2005, and re-elected in January 2012, from 2007 to mid-2012, Potter was Leader of Government Business in Parliament. She caused a stir in September 2010 when she stated that some members of the Parti Lepep did not have sufficient education or technical knowledge to understand the content and meaning of bills placed before them.
Nominated for her first ambassadorship by Seychellois President James Michel on March 30, 2012, Potter presented her credentials to President Obama on September 19. She is concurrently accredited as permanent representative to the United Nations and will be accredited to other nearby countries in the future.
Potter’s legislative career also includes participation in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the International Parliamentary Union. She speaks French, Seychellois Creole and English.
Potter is married and has three children.
-Matt Bewig
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