John de Jongh
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| John de Jongh | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 1, 2007 |
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| Lieutenant(s) | Gregory Francis |
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| Preceded by | Charles Turnbull |
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| Born | November 13, 1957 (age 49) St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Cecile René Galiber |
| Profession | Financial Executive, Real Estate |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
John P. de Jongh, Jr. (born November 13, 1957 in St. Thomas) is the current Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands. He moved from the territory when he was very young due to his parents' divorce, and lived with his mother in Detroit, Michigan. He earned an economics degree from Antioch College in rural Ohio.
After graduating from college, de Jongh returned to his native Virgin Islands. He worked for several years as a member of the Economic Development Council before taking a job with Chase Manhattan. de Jongh first worked as an executive in the company's San Juan, Puerto Rico office before once again returning to the Virgin Islands after earning the position of Consumer Manager of Operations in both the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.
In 1987, de Jongh was appointed as Commissioner of Finance, his first political office and one that had once been held by his grandfather, Percy. He was key in financial reforming and boosting the economy of the territory in the early 1990s. Since 1992, de Jongh has been out of political life, but has been a powerful and successful businessman. He worked as a consultant for Public Financial Management and was one of the creators of the oversight committee to help Washington, D.C. becoming financially sound. de Jongh has also been an executive at Lockhart http://www.lockhart.com and Chillmark Partners, two large Caribbean real estate firms.
De Jongh unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2002 (receiving the second highest amount of votes out of eight candidates) as an independent candidate. He won the governorship in the 2006 general election after defeating Kenneth Mapp in a November 21st run-off election with over 57% of the vote. Mapp had edged out Adlah Donastorg for the second run-off spot in the November 7 election. De Jongh held the support of the business community, among others, and the expectations of the people for a competently-run public-private partnership in the years to come.
De Jongh took the oath of office on January 1, 2007 to become the 27th Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Prior to this, he had never served in elective office.
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| Governors of U.S. Virgin Islands |  |
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| Pollock • Oliver • Oman • Kittelle • Hough • Williams • Trench • Evans • Pearson • Herrick • Cramer • Lovett • Harwood • Hastie • de Castro • Alexander • Claunch • Gordon • Merwin • Paiewonsky • King • Evans • King • Luis • Farrelly • Schneider • Turnbull • de Jongh |
