Luamanuvae Katalina Sapolu is Samoa’s new Ombudsman and will head the Office of the Ombudsman and the National Human Rights Institution.

A lawyer by profession with a masters degree in public international law from the Queen Mary University of London and bachelors degrees in law and arts from Auckland and Newcastle universities, Luamanuvae is currently the barrister and law director of PL Strategy Consulting Limited, according to a statement issued by the Government on Thursday.

The Ombudsman position was advertised last November following the exit of Maiava Iulai Toma, who had been in the position for 27 years and was one of the longest serving public servants in Samoa.

Luamanuvae started her career in Samoa as a staff solicitor for Sapolu and Co. Barristers and Solicitors from 1988 to 1992, and went on to become the principal solicitor from 1992 to 2002 for the same law firm.

She was appointed Notary Public in Samoa in 1988, the same year she was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Samoa.

Clocking over 15 years with the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, she began working as an adviser and head of the legal and constitutional affairs division of the Commonwealth Secretariat in 2002.

And for almost two years, she was the chief legal counsel for the Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group) in Brussels from 2012.

She then returned to the Commonwealth Secretariat to take on the role of director of the rule of law division of the Commonwealth Secretariat from 2013 – 2017, before she was appointed senior director for governance and peace directorate from 2017–2019 prior to returning home.