Surangel Whipps Jr.

Surangel Samuel Whipps Jr., born August 9, 1968, in Baltimore, Maryland, has served as President of Palau since January 21, 2021, and was re-elected to a second term in the November 2024 general election after an earlier unsuccessful bid in 2016. A businessman who sits as an independent, he previously served as a member of the Senate of Palau from 2009 to 2016, and has been an advocate for environmental conservation, economic reform, and maintaining Palau's diplomatic ties with Taiwan. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Andrews University, earned in 1988, and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, earned in 1992.