DR. ALFRED SANT: PRIME MINISTER OF MALTA (1996
- 1998)
Born on February 28, 1948, Dr Alfred Sant, M.Sc.,
M.B.A., D.B.A. (HARVARD), M.P., graduated as Bachelor of
Science in Physics and Mathematics at the University of Malta
in 1967 and as Master of Science in Physics in the following
year. In 1970, he read for a Diploma of the Institute
International d'Amministration Publique in Paris. In the same
year, he served as Second and then as First Secretary at the
Malta Mission to the European Community in Brussels.
Dr Sant resigned from the Maltese diplomatic
service early in 1975 to undertake full-time studies at Boston
University where he graduated with High Honours as Master of
Business Administration in 1976. He was awarded a Harvard
Business School research fellowship and graduated Doctor of
Business Administration at Harvard Business School, Cambridge,
USA in 1979.
Between 1977-78, Dr Sant served as adviser
on general and financial management at the Ministry of
Parastatal and Peoples Industries in Valletta and for the
following two years he was Managing Director of Medina
Consulting Group, a unit formed to provide business
consultancy services in Malta and abroad.
Between 1980 and 1982, Dr Sant was Executive
Deputy Chairman of the Malta Development Corporation. Towards
the end of 1982, he started to work as consultant in the
public and private sectors.
Between 1984 and 1988, Dr Sant served as
Chairman of the Guze Ellul Mercer Foundation, an educational
joint venture between the Malta Labour Party and the General
Workers Union. During 1988 and 1989, he chaired a Malta Labour
Party working group evaluating the options for future
relations between Malta and the European Community from the
economic and social perspectives. The report of the working
group was published in book form in Maltese and in English.
Dr Sant is an established writer and
playwright and has published several books.
In 1995, Dr Sant published a study, entitled
"Malta's European Challenge" focusing on the need
for Malta to establish the best possible relations with the
European Union compatible with Malta's special position at the
centre of the Mediterranean.
His active political career started in 1982
when he was appointed Chairman of the Information branch of
the Malta Labour Party, an office he held until 1984.
In 1984, he was elected President of the
Malta Labour Party and served in that position until 1988. In
1987, he was elected Member of Parliament and was elected
Leader of the Malta Labour Party in 1992.
Dr Sant led the Malta Labour Party to
electoral victory in the General Elections of October 1996. He
was sworn in as Malta's Prime Minister on October 28, 1996.
Following the electoral defeat in the General Elections of
1998, he was appointed Leader of the Opposition.
