Berta Cabral | |
Office: | Regional Secretary for Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructure |
Term Start: | 19 April 2022 |
Birth Name: | Berta Maria Correia de Almeida |
Birth Date: | 20 November 1952 |
Birth Place: | Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal |
Party: | Socialist Democratic Party |
Spouse: | Leonel de Melo Cabral |
Children: | 2 |
Alma Mater: | Technical University of Lisbon |
Office6: | Regional Secretary for Finance, Planning and Public Administration |
Term Start6: | 20 October 1995 |
Term End6: | 8 November 1996 |
Predecessor6: | Joaquim Bastos e Silva |
Successor6: | Roberto Rocha Amaral |
President6: | Alberto Madruga da Costa |
Office5: | Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Azores |
Term Start5: | 1996 |
Term End5: | 2001 |
Term Start4: | 16 December 2001 |
Office4: | Mayor of Ponta Delgada |
Successor4: | José Manuel Bolieiro |
Predecessor4: | Manuel Arruda |
Predecessor: | Mário Mota Borges |
President: | José Manuel Bolieiro |
Office2: | Secretary of State of National Defence |
Termend2: | 30 October 2015 |
Termstart2: | 22 April 2013 |
Predecessor2: | Paulo Braga Lino |
Successor2: | Mónica Ferro |
Primeminister2: | Pedro Passos Coelho |
Term End4: | 31 July 2012[1] |
Constituency1: | Azores |
Termstart1: | October 2015 |
Termend1: | October 2019 |
Minister2: | José Pedro Aguiar-Branco |
Constituency5: | São Miguel Island |
Berta Maria Correia de Almeida de Melo Cabral (born 20 November 1952)[2] is an Azorean politician.
An economist by profession, Cabral received her degree in finance from the Lisbon School of Economics and Management at the Technical University of Lisbon in 1975.[3] 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 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, and a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Azores.[4] In 2001 she became leader of the city council of Ponta Delgada, in the process becoming the city's first female mayor.[5] In 2008 she was elected leader of the Azorean branch of the Social Democratic Party with 98.5% of the vote, having run unopposed in the election.[4] She thus became the first woman to lead a political party in the archipelago.[6] In 2012 she was nominated to lead the Ministry of National Defense in the cabinet of Pedro Passos Coelho, becoming the first woman to hold the post in the Portuguese cabinet.[7] Between 2015 and 2019 she was a member of the Assembly of the Republic.[8] Since 2022 she has been regional secretary of Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructure.[9]