Mia Mottley

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Mia Amor Mottley, born October 1, 1965, in Bridgetown, Barbados, is a Barbadian lawyer and politician. She has led the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) since 2008 and has been the prime minister of Barbados since May 25, 2018. She is the first woman to hold both roles in Barbados.

She has been the Member of Parliament for Saint Michael North East since 1994. Early in her career she served as Education Minister (1994) and, in 2001, became Attorney-General and Minister of Home Affairs—the first woman in Barbados to hold that position. She was Deputy Prime Minister from 2003 to 2008.

In 2018, the BLP won all 30 seats in Parliament in a historic landslide, and Mottley became prime minister and also took on the finance portfolio. In 2021 Barbados became a republic, with Dame Sandra Mason elected as president; this ended Barbados’ constitutional monarchy under the Queen. The move drew criticism for not holding a referendum.

In 2022, the BLP again won all 30 seats in a snap election, and Mottley was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2022. She has been a leading voice in regional and global affairs, chairing CARICOM for six months in 2020 and promoting climate action and financial reform through the Bridgetown Agenda. She has spoken at the United Nations on climate change and other global issues and delivered the Kofi Annan Memorial Lecture and the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture.

Mottley has received several global honors. She appeared on Time’s cover in May 2022, was named a Global Leader by the United Nations Foundation in 2022, was listed in the BBC’s 100 Women in 2022, and has been named among Forbes’ World’s 100 Most Powerful Women in 2023 and 2025 (ranked 99th in 2025).

She comes from a family with a strong political and legal legacy; her father, Sir Elliott Deighton Mottley, was a noted lawyer and politician. She studied at Merrivale Preparatory School, the United Nations International School, Queen’s College, and earned a law degree from the University of London in 1986.