Date of Birth: February 21,1938

The son of Sir Vere Cornwall Bird, the first Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda after independence, Lester Bryant Bird was educated at Antigua Grammar School, the University of Michigan, and Gray’s Inn, London. Between 1969 and 1976 Bird was a lawyer in private practice.

In 1971 Bird became the chairman of the Antigua Labour Party (ALP), which had been formed by his father in 1946, and entered the Senate as Leader of the Opposition. In 1976 Bird was elected as an MP, and between 1976 and 1991 served as both Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development, Tourism, and Energy. Between 1981 (when Antigua achieved full independence from the United Kingdom) and 1991 he also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in his father’s government. In 1991 he became Minister of External Affairs, Planning, and Trade, and in the general election of March 1994 he was elected Prime Minister, succeeding his father who had retired the previous December.

In 2004 the ALP was defeated by the United Progressive Party (UPP), with Bird losing his seat in the House of Representatives. In the election of 2009 he regained his seat.