Dionisio D'Aguilar
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Dionisio James D'Aguilar (born October 15, 1964) is a Bahamian
Free National Movement The Free National Movement (abbreviated FNM) is a political party in the Bahamas formed in the early 1970s and led by Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield. The current leader of the party is Michael Pintard and the current deputy leader is Shanendon C ...
(FNM) politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for
Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...
and Minister of Tourism and Aviation from 2017 to 2021. Before getting involved in politics, he was a well-known businessman who served on the board of directors for multiple companies.


Early life and career

D'Aguilar was born in Nassau on October 15, 1964, to Vincent D'Aguilar and Marina Benjamin, and attended
Rugby School Rugby School is a Public school (United Kingdom), private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independ ...
in England for his early education. He then studied at
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
, receiving his
Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
(BA) in hotel administration in 1986 before earning his
Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...
(MBA) one year later. He remained in
New York state New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...
for five years while working as a
Certified Public Accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Stat ...
(CPA) before returning to the Bahamas, where he has served as the president and CEO of Superwash Limited, a chain of self-service laundromats, since 1993. D'Aguilar later served on the board of directors for companies such as Insurance Company of The Bahamas, J.S. Johnson Insurance, AML Foods Limited, Bahamar, and the Bahamas Electricity Corporation. As an active member of the community, he also presided as the president of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and the Bahamas Breast Cancer Initiative.


Political career

Prior to his political career, D'Aguilar was often in the news for challenging the government on issues such as fiscal policy and strict immigration. He committed to running for a Parliamentary seat in the 2017 general election under the FNM platform, submitting his name for consideration. He was officially ratified by the party in October 2016 to represent the Freetown constituency, then still known as Montague. The incumbent, Richard Lightbourne, had fallen out of favor with the party, which is why they looked to replace him. Leading up to the election, D'Aguilar said that the country was "becoming a socialist state" in response to a proposed reform of the Employment and Industrial Relations Acts which increased the maximum length of redundancy pay, calling the idea "absolutely crazy." He also criticized government social programs and overspending. D'Aguilar won the seat after defeating
Progressive Liberal Party The Progressive Liberal Party (abbreviated PLP) is a populist and social liberal party in the Bahamas. Philip Davis is the leader of the party. History The PLP was founded in 1953 by William Cartwright, Cyril Stevenson, and Henry Milton ...
(PLP) candidate Wayne Munroe with 60 percent of the vote; the FNM also won 35 of 39 seats. Five days later he was sworn in as Minister of Tourism and Aviation by new Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, and in June he was elected to a one-year term as chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO). In 2018, he was named the Caribbean Tourism Minister of the Year at the Caribbean Travel Awards, receiving praise for adding new hotels and securing additional flights to the islands. ''Caribbean Journal'' reported that no other country in the region had a more impressive surge in their tourism sector that year. The
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
dealt devastating blows to the tourism industry, and it was no exception in the Bahamas, where airports and seaports were closed to visitors starting on March 24, 2020. In June, he announced the Tourism Readiness and Recovery Plan, a four-phase strategy for re-opening the international tourist economy. In January 2021, in response to U.S. President
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
's executive order requiring returning tourists to self-quarantine, D'Aguilar said the move was "simply devastating" because it represented a "significant deterrent to travel." The following month he expressed satisfaction with the rate of
COVID-19 vaccination in the United States The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the United States is an ongoing mass immunization campaign for the . The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first granted emergency use authorization to the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer– ...
, projecting an improvement in the domestic situation by the third quarter of the year.


Personal life

D'Aguilar married Dutch citizen and fellow Cornell alum Saskia Schutte in 1990, and brought her back with him to Nassau the following year. The couple has two sons, Alexander and Oliver, both of whom played
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
. Saskia bonded with Dionisio's father, Vincent, over his art collection, often going to art shows and galleries together as he taught her about the local scene. After his death in 2008, she lobbied the family to open the D'Aguilar Art Foundation to preserve and display his collection, serving as its director. According to the declared financial declarations, Dionisio D'Aguilar is worth US$37.9 million (2021).


References


External links


Parliamentary profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Aguilar, Dionisio Living people 1964 births Free National Movement politicians Members of the House of Assembly of the Bahamas Aviation ministers of the Bahamas Tourism ministers of the Bahamas 21st-century Bahamian politicians Bahamian businesspeople Bahamian chief executives Bahamian corporate directors Cornell University alumni People from Nassau, Bahamas People educated at Rugby School