Emiko Bird-Lake appointed as Acting Governor

PHIIPSBURG — Emiko Bird-Lake has been appointed as Acting Governor. The Kingdom Council of Ministers approved her nomination for the position on Friday.

Bird-Lake was born in St. Maarten in 1971. She studied medicine at Leiden University and specialized as a cardiologist at the Free University Medical Center in Amsterdam. She currently works as a cardiologist at the St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) and the Saba Cares medical center.

Bird-Lake is coordinator of the intensive care department at the SMMC; she is a medical advisor and board member of the St. Maarten Heart and Stroke Foundation and a member of the Council of Health.

If necessary, Bird-Lake can replace Governor Ajamu Baly. The Governor of St. Maarten represents the King of the Netherlands and is as such the head of the local government. In this function he is inviolable and the ministers are responsible. As a kingdom entity the governor looks after the interests of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

In 2015, Bird-Lake told a local journalist why she had chosen for a profession in the medical field. As a 13-year old she once visited a doctor’s office and noticed that none of the names on the doors were of locals. “This made such an impact on me that I had a strong conviction that I was going to become a doctor.”

The newly appointed acting governor is the daughter of Veronica Lake and Matumi Shigemoto Sr. She lived for a while in Suriname before returning to St. Maarten where she finished her elementary school. She earned her Havo-diploma at Milton Peters College. Still a teenager, she studied at the University of South Florida where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Chemistry and Pre-Medicine.

In 2000 Bird-Lake completed her studies at Leiden University and became a medical doctor.

Bird-Lake told the journalist that she enjoys singing and that she was part of Qualichi Faces in the Netherlands, a group of St. Maarten women that reach out to students and elderly living in the Netherlands. The group has since ceased to exist.

Publisher’s Note: StMaartenNews.com wishes Dr. Emiko Bird-Lake much success, wisdom and God’s guidance in fulfilling her duties as Acting Governor on St. Maarten.

###

Related article: SMMC continues to innovate services with newly installed ultrasounds