Paula Cox

Paula Ann Cox CBE (born c. 1964) is a Bermudian politician and former Premier of Bermuda. She has been the leader of the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party (PLP), since 28 October 2010. In accordance with the Bermuda Constitution Order 1968, she was appointed Premier of Bermuda, on Friday, 29 October 2010 by Governor Sir Richard Gozney. She was succeeded as Premier by Craig Cannonier on 18 December 2012, when she led her party into election defeat, losing her own seat in the process.

Paula Cox, the only daughter born to Bermudians C. Eugene and Alinda F. Cox, spent her early years living in Sandys Parish. She attended The Berkeley Institute and Havergal College. She later earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from McGill University in Canada, and a post-graduate Diploma in International Law from the University of Manchester. She trained as a Solicitor at the College of Law, Chancery Lane, London, and was called to the Bermuda Bar in January 1992. She received an honorary doctorate in Education at the May 2004 Commencement Exercise of Wheelock College (USA) and more recently, in 2009, was made an Honorary Alumnus of Dalhousie University.

Cox was first elected to Parliament in October 1996 when she won the Devonshire North by-election (Constituency 14). A seat formally held by the then Opposition Leader, Mr. L. Frederick Wade, JP, MP. Then in her mid-30s, Mrs. Cox became one of the youngest members of the House of Assembly.

Following the General Election in November 1998, Cox was appointed the first PLP Minister of Labour, Home Affairs and Public Safety. Her management of that portfolio gained her added recognition when she was judged "the most effective politician" in the Best of Bermuda Gold Awards for 2001 by The Bermudian, a prestigious and long-standing magazine in Bermuda. This achievement was then repeated in 2003.

On 1 November 2001, Cox was given a new assignment and appointed the Minister of Education and Development and was later that year named in the Bermudians' Best of Bermuda Gold annual listing as the most effective politician for 2001. Following the July 2003 general election, Cox retained her Education portfolio but was additionally appointed Attorney-General following the retirement of the iconic former leader of the BPLP, former member of parliament and former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dame Lois Browne-Evans. Cox served in this dual portfolio until January 2004. In 2003, she was again cited in The Bermudian′s Best of Gold's annual listing as the most effective politician.

Cox assumed the Finance portfolio exclusively in January 2004, succeeding her late father, the Hon. C. Eugene Cox, CBE, JP, MP. She and her father were unique in Bermuda and party politics in both being Ministers in the first PLP administration and the only serving father-daughter duo in Parliament.

Cabinet appointments:

Premier of Bermuda, October 2010–December 2012
Minister of Finance, 2004–12
Attorney General, 2003–04
Minister of Education, 2001–04
Minister of Labour, Home Affairs and Public Safety, 1998–2001

Cox was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for public service in Bermuda.

Paula A. Cox is a corporate lawyer, having served as a lawyer for ACE Limited as their Corporate Counsel and previously as Vice President and Senior Legal Counsel of Global Funds Services at the Bank of Bermuda Limited.

Cox is married to businessman Germain Nkeuleu, with whom she has a son, Stephan. She has two brothers, Jeremy Cox, Chief Executive Officer of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, and Robert Cox, an electrical engineer presently working in the United States. Paula Cox is an avid reader of international biographies and collector of African antiquities.