Berta Maria Correia de Almeida de Melo Cabral (born

Ponta Delgada Ponta Delgada (; ) is the largest municipality (''concelho'') and economic capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal. It is located on São Miguel Island, the largest and most populous in the archipelago. As of 2021, it has 67,28 ...

) is an Azorean politician. An

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

by profession, Cabral received her degree in finance from the Lisbon School of Economics and Management at the

Technical University of Lisbon The Technical University of Lisbon (UTL; pt, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, ) was a Portuguese public university. It was created in 1930 in Lisbon, as a confederation of preexisting schools, and comprised the faculties and institutes of veter ...

in 1975. She served as regional director of treasury and transportation and communications for a time in the 1980s before being named to the government of

Mota Amaral Mota, MOTA or variations thereof may refer to: Geography * Mota (island), Vanuatu * Mota, Ethiopia, a town * Mota, Gujarat, India, a town * Mota, Ljutomer, Slovenia, a village Music * ''M.O.T.A.'' (album), a 2005 album by Cultura Profética * "M ...

as regional secretary of Finance and Public Administration. Other public roles in the Azores which she has held include administrator of Eléctrica Açoriana, chair of the board of directors of

SATA Air Açores SATA Air Açores is a Portuguese airline based in São Sebastião, Ponta Delgada in the Azores, Portugal. It operates scheduled passenger, cargo and mail services around the Azores. It provides its own maintenance and handling services and manag ...

, and a member of the

Legislative Assembly of the Azores The Legislative Assembly of the Azores ( pt, Assembleia Legislativa dos Açores) is the regional assembly/legislature of the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal. History The regional legislative assembly, since it was first instituted, ha ...

. In 2001 she became leader of the city council of Ponta Delgada, in the process becoming the city's first female mayor. In 2008 she was elected leader of the Azorean branch of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

with 98.5% of the vote, having run unopposed in the election. She thus became the first woman to lead a political party in the archipelago. In 2012 she was nominated to lead the

Ministry of National Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

in the cabinet of

Pedro Passos Coelho Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho (; born 24 July 1964) is a Portuguese politician and university guest lecturer who was the 118th prime minister of Portugal, in office from 2011 to 2015. He was the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) b ...

, becoming the first woman to hold the post in the Portuguese cabinet. Since 2015 she has been a member of the Assembly of the Republic.

References

Living people Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Azores Women mayors of places in Portugal Women government ministers of Portugal Ministers of National Defence of Portugal Members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) 20th-century Portuguese economists Portuguese women economists People from Ponta Delgada Technical University of Lisbon alumni Social Democratic Party (Portugal) politicians 20th-century Portuguese women politicians 20th-century Portuguese politicians 21st-century Portuguese women politicians 21st-century Portuguese politicians Azorean women in politics Women members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Year of birth missing (living people) {{Portugal-politician-stub