Dr Denzil Douglas was born on January 14th 1953 in the Village of St. Paul in the north of St. Kitts.

After graduating from local schools he attended the University of the West Indies in Barbados, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1977, followed by a medical degree in 1984 from the Mona Campus in Jamaica. After a two-year internship in Trinidad and Tobago, Douglas returned to St Kitts and opened his own private medical practice.

Denzil Douglas’ political career began at an early age when he became the first Young Labour representative to sit on the National Executive of the St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party. In 1987 Dr Douglas was elected Deputy Chairman of the Party and in 1989 he was elected as the Parliamentary Representative for St Christopher 6 (Newton Ground/Harris). In this same year he took over leadership of the Labour Party, and was appointed Leader of the Oppostion.

Over the next five years Douglas restructured and modernised the Labour Party paving the way for a landslide victory in the 1995 elections when the Labour Party won 7 of the 11 elected seats. Dr Douglas was sworn in as Prime Minister on July 4th 1995 and was re-elected as Prime Minister in the elections of both 2000 and 2004.

After over a decade in office, Dr Denzil Douglas has remained a popular and respected leader, playing an active role in many regional and international organisations and receiving numerous awards for outstanding leadership, peacekeeping and his role in the flight against HIV/Aids.