page_title: Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (center) attends a meeting with Pacific Islands foreign ministers at the Aggie’s Lagoon Resort in Mulifanua, Apia, Samoa. In attendance were fifteen foreign ministers, all members of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, including delegates from Australia, Fiji, Samoa, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Tonga, Tuvalu, Guam, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Palau and Papua New Guinea.
context_page_description: Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Neioti Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi is a Samoan politician who has been Prime Minister of Samoa since 1998.
context_section_description: Born at Lepa, Samoa, Tuilaepa is an economist by profession. He attended high school at St Joseph's College in Lotopa and at St Paul's College, Auckland. He then obtained a master's from the University of Auckland, becoming the first Samoan to receive a master's degree in Commerce.
  He worked for the European Economic Community and Coopers & Lybrand before being elected to the Samoan parliament in 1980.
  Tuilaepa lost two relatives in the 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami, including the daughter of one of his nieces. Most of Malielegaoi's hometown of Lepa, Samoa, was destroyed in the tsunami, leaving just the church and the village's welcome sign standing.
caption: Malielegaoi with Pacific Islands leaders and Condoleezza Rice in Apia, 26 July 2008
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