Pennelope Beckles Email and Phone Number

Pennelope Beckles, popularly called “Penny”, is a Trinidad and Tobago politician, diplomat, and Attorney-at-Law. She is the Member of Parliament for the Constituency of Arima and a Government Minister in the Ministry of Planning and Development. Ms. Beckles was first appointed to the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago as an Opposition Senator in 1995. She became the first female elected Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, in 2007. Since then, she has held ministerial responsibilities for Housing and Urban Development; Public Utilities and the Environment; Culture and Tourism, and Social Development. As the line Minister of Planning and Development, she has responsibility for 6 Governmental Agencies. Her portfolio also includes governorship of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), and being the focal point for the United Nations bodies for Trinidad and Tobago. She is responsible for technical cooperation and European Union development initiatives, along with several other national and international assignments.Appointed Trinidad and Tobago’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in 2016, she was elected President of UN Women in 2019 and was one of the twenty-one (21) Vice Presidents of the Seventy-fourth (74th) session of the United Nations General Assembly.She is an alumna of the Hugh Wooding Law School, Trinidad, and The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados. She attended St. Joseph Convent, San Fernando. A lover of culture, cooking, and hiking, Penny is an avid sports fan, having achievements in both table tennis and football during her university career. She is also passionate about youth development, gender equality, justice, and the development of rural communities, and is a strong advocate for the increased participation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.