Woman Selected to Lead Samoa’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
A new Chief Executive Officer for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) was appointed by Cabinet last week, at its final meeting before Christmas.
The 3-year appointment will see Frances Brown-Reupena lead one of Samoa’s largest and most diverse Ministries reflected in its 14 divisions including the Meteorological Services, the Disaster Management Office, Water Sector and Water Resources, Forestry, Climate Change and GEF, as well as Renewable Engery and Environment Conservation.
Reupena has extensive experience in the sector and is currently the Assistant Chief Executive Officer (ACEO) of MNRE’s Environment Sector Coordination division. She has been with MNRE for nearly ten years, and has also held the role of Water and Sanitation Sector Coordinator.
Reupena’s appointment follows the resignation of former CEO Ulu Bismark Crawley in October, to prepare his campaign for the upcoming general elections.
Frances Reupena takes over the sector when its National Environment Sector Plan 2017-2021 (NESP) comes to the final year of its implementation, and would be looking to set strategies for the next five years.
She will also lead the implementation of Samoa’s 10-year integrated management plan for its oceans, the Samoa Ocean Strategy 2020-2030.
Brown-Reupena will see the Ministry through the rest of its Corporate Plan 2019-2021 guided by its key purpose to “improve Samoa’s environment and do more for the people and wildlife with the resources we have while supporting the Government’s drive for economic and sustainable green growth”.
She was selected from a shortlist of applicants that included 4 other ACEOs of the Ministry who had put their hands up for the role, and one applicant from outside the Ministry, who later withdrew.
Samoa’s new MNRE CEO is the daughter of the late Tupa’i Kuka Brown who served as a 2AP broadcaster and Director of TV Samoa for many years, and her mother, the late Talalele Tofa Brown.
She is married to Semua Luatua Ollie Reupena and they have five children.
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