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Constituency: Stanley
Portfolios: Policy & Administration; Treasury & Finance
Public Email: msummers@sec.gov.fk
Biography:
Mike Summers was born in Stanley in 1952 and spent his early childhood at Port Howard. He won a Falkland Islands Government scholarship to boarding school in Dorset, UK at the age of 11 years. After A Levels he completed a BA in Business Studies at Middlesex University, and then joined a petrochemical construction and engineering company based in London, where he lived for over 20 years. He travelled extensively in North and West Africa in project development. After 6 years he joined a UK based German contractor, responsible for project finance and business development in Africa and the Far East, living for two years in Thailand. In 1986 he moved to a US-owned UK engineering company engaged in worldwide offshore engineering and chemical plant construction, responsible for project finance, sales management and corporate planning.
In 1989 Mike accepted an offer to return to the Falkland Islands as General Manager of the Falkland Islands Development Corporation; in his 7 years as GM he extensively reformed and re-focussed the organisation, and led it from a UK ODA funded organisation to a locally funded democratically accountable organisation. He took a leading role in the planning of road construction and transport management, development of long term fisheries licensing policies, planning the early elements of minerals exploration and the first licensing round, obtaining new sources of EU funding for rural development, setting up the Chilean airlink now operated by LAN, guiding land based and cruise vessel tourism development, completion of the land reform process, and funding a wide range of Stanley and camp based projects.
Mike resigned in 1996 to pursue a career in the private sector. He is the owner and Managing Director of Pioneer Seafoods Ltd and co-owner and Director of Quark Fishing Ltd. He was first elected to Legislative Assembly in a by-election in 1996, has been re-elected a further three times, has served many of those years on Executive Council, and ten years as Chair of Standing Finance Committee. He has been extensively involved in all areas of Government during this time, but his key focus has always been the economy and foreign affairs. He is Chair of the Select Committee on the Constitution, and initiated the Islands Plan in 1996. He has been Spokesman for the Legislative Assembly since the 2005 election.
Mike Summers is married with two daughters and one grand-daughter. He has been involved in Falklands politics since 1976 and is a former Chairman of the Falkland Islands Association; he is the co-founder and Trustee of the FI YMCA and maintains a keen active interest in a number of local sports. Whenever possible Mike and Jacki like to spend time at Port Howard.
