The Right Honorable Carwyn Jones AM, First Minister of Wales and Assembly Member for Bridgend has been confirmed as RenewableUK Cymru 2013’s Keynote Speaker. Carwyn Jones will welcome delegates in the Opening Session of the conference on 1 May.
Carwyn Jones became First Minister of Wales in December 2009. Following re-election in May 2011, Carwyn Jones heads the Welsh Government and announced a new Programme for Government in September 2011. Carwyn Jones was elected to represent the constituency of Bridgend in the first elections to the newly created National Assembly for Wales in 1999 and within a year was a member of the Cabinet. His first Cabinet role was as a Deputy Secretary in March 2000, and he was appointed Agriculture and Rural Development Secretary later that year.
The role of Business Minister was added to his Rural Affairs portfolio in March 2002. In June of the same year he was appointed Minister for Open Government. Following the 2nd Assembly election in May 2003 he took on the role of Minister for the Environment, Planning and the Countryside. During this time he was responsible for the Welsh response to the 2001 Foot and Mouth disease outbreak. In May 2007 he was appointed Minister for Education, Culture and the Welsh Language and from July 2007 was appointed Counsel General and Leader of the House in the coalition Welsh Assembly Government with Plaid Cymru. He was appointed to the Privy Council on 9 June 2010.
Born in 1967, Carwyn Jones was educated at Brynteg Comprehensive School, Bridgend; University of Wales, Aberystwyth; and Inns of Court School of Law, London. Prior to his election as an Assembly Member, he was a Barrister in Chambers in Swansea specialising in Criminal, Family and Personal Injury Law and a Tutor at Cardiff University Law School.
He has been a Bridgend County Borough Councillor and was Chair of the County Borough Council Labour Group. He is a member of Amnesty International, Unison, Unite and the Fabian Society. He has been a Labour Party member since 1987 and played an active role in the ‘Yes for Wales’ campaign to extend the law-making powers of the National Assembly for Wales.
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Press release, March 28, 2013