Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/10

Henry Faati Naisali (12 August 1928 – 29 October 2004) AO, CMG and an MBE. He participated in the negotiations in London which resulted in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony being separated into the British colonies of Kiribati and Tuvalu. He was appointed Financial Secretary of the British Colony of Tuvalu in 1976. He was elected to represent Nukulaelae in the House of Assembly of the British Colony of Tuvalu in the Tuvaluan general election, 1977. After Tuvalu became an independent country, Naisali was elected to the Parliament of Tuvalu in the 1981 general election. He was re-elected in the 1985 general election and was appointed finance minister and deputy prime minister in the government of prime minister Tomasi Puapua. In 1987, he was instrumental in the formation of the Tuvalu Trust Fund. Naisali was the Director of the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation (SPBEC) from January 1986 to September 1988; he continued as Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum until January 1992.