When Paula Cox is sworn in as Premier, it will crown a career that has already seen her hold virtually every major Cabinet post since the Progressive Labour Party took power in 1998.

But Ms Cox has been at the heart of PLP politics all her life.

Her father, Eugene Cox, was a leading Progressive Labour Party MP from the 1970s on, and for much of that time was Shadow Finance Minister when the PLP was in Opposition before taking that role in Government when the party took power in 1998.

Ms Cox first ran for the House of Assembly while still a student in 1985, but after being defeated, she returned to her studies and became a lawyer.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from McGill University, a post-graduate Diploma in International Law from the University of Manchester, England and is a member of the Bermuda Bar, having trained in the United Kingdom as a solicitor.

Most of her legal career has been spent as a corporate counsel, at the Bank of Bermuda HSBC and now at ACE. Ms Cox is married to a businessman from Cameroon, Germain Nkeuleu and has two brothers, Jeremy Cox, the chief executive officer of the Bermuda Monetary Authority and Robert Cox, an electrical engineer, who currently works in the US.

An aide to Opposition Leader Frederick Wade before his death, she was also a protégé of the late Dame Lois Browne Evans and Dame Jennifer Smith. Ms Cox won Mr. Wade's Devonshire North seat in the by-election after his death in 1996 and joined the Shadow Cabinet.

When the PLP took power in 1998, Ms Cox, still in her 30s, was given the critically important Labour and Home Affairs Ministry, where she crafted the legislation granting greater rights to hundreds of non-Bermudians but restricting work permit stays at the same time.

She also tackled a succession of crises at Westgate prison and began the drafting of the Employment Act.

She moved to the Education Ministry in late 2001 and, following the 2003 election, had the Attorney General portfolio added to her responsibilities.

Ms Cox replaced her father as Finance Minister when he died in January 2004, becoming Deputy Premier as well in 2006 when Dr. Ewart Brown defeated then-Premier Alex Scott for the leadership of the PLP.

For much of her career she has enjoyed widespread popularity and built a reputation as a person who listened to all sides and developed a consensus on policies before enacting them.

That reputation contrasted with Dr. Brown, who was often seen as combative and confrontational. Ms Cox was also critical of the Premier last year at the height of the Uighur crisis when she said she felt "politically neutered", but she rallied the party to successfully defeat an Opposition no confidence motion and then remained in office, while leadership rivals Terry Lister and Dale Butler resigned from Cabinet.

That decision did not shake her popularity, which took its only real hit earlier this year, when she described herself as a "cog in the wheel" unable to turn down Ministers' requests for more money, and delivered an unpopular tax-raising Budget.