Christine Carla Kangaloo (born 1 December 1961) is a Trinidadian lawyer and politician who has served as the 7th President of Trinidad and Tobago since 2023. Kangaloo holds the distinction of being the first and only person to have served as Vice President of the Senate, President of the Senate, and President of the Republic in separate and distinct appointments. During her tenure as President of the Senate (2015âÂÂ2023), she acted as President of the Republic on 33 separate occasions before being formally elected to the office by the Electoral College on 20 January 2023. Upon succeeding Paula-Mae Weekes on 20 March 2023, she became the first woman in the Americas to succeed another woman as Head of State. Globally, she is the second woman to achieve this feat in a parliamentary republic, following Ireland's Mary McAleese, who succeeded Mary Robinson in 1997. Additionally, she is the first woman of Indian ancestry to serve as a president of a country in the Americas.
Prior to her presidency, Kangaloo had an extensive career in public service and the legal profession. She served as an Assistant Registrar of the Supreme Court (1992âÂÂ1996) before entering Parliament as an Opposition Senator in 2001. She subsequently held multiple ministerial portfolios, including Minister of Legal Affairs (2005âÂÂ2007) and Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education (2007âÂÂ2010), and served as the Member of Parliament for Pointe-à-Pierre.
Christine Kangaloo was born into a Presbyterian Indo-Trinidadian family to Carlyle and Barbara Kangaloo and she is the fifth of their seven children. In 2018, she and her husband converted to Roman Catholicism. She graduated from the University of the West Indies and Hugh Wooding Law School and with a degree in law. Christine Kangaloo began her legal career in 1985, working alongside her father, Carlyle at his law firm in San Fernando, Trinidad. Their professional partnership continued until his passing in 1996.
On 12 January 2001, she first became a member of parliament as an opposition senator under the tenure of Opposition Leader Patrick Manning. She then served as Vice President of the Senate and subsequently Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister in 2002. She was then appointed Minister of Legal Affairs in 2005. In the 2007 Trinidad and Tobago general election, she was elected to the House of Representatives as the People's National Movement (PNM) candidate for Pointe-ÃÂ -Pierre and served as the Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education. On 23 September 2015 she was elected as President of the Senate.
She was president of the Senate of Trinidad and Tobago from 2015 until her resignation to run for president in 2023. She is the only person to serve as both President and Vice President of the Senate of Trinidad and Tobago, the first woman to serve as Senate Vice President and third woman to serve as acting President of Trinidad and Tobago and Senate President. She became the second woman to serve as President of Trinidad and Tobago upon her assumption of office on 20 March 2023.
Kangaloo has served as an Opposition Senator, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Minister of Legal Affairs and Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education in previous People's National Movement governments.
Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago