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Basil
Ottley Jr. was born in Puerto Rico on November 25,
1966 to Basil Ottley Sr. and Josephine
Schulterbrandt Ottley. He is a Montessori School
graduate, and he was the salutatorian of the
Antilles High School Class of 1984. There were
times when Basil resented not going to the same
schools as his Savan neighborhood friends and
cousins, but he appreciates the friends he made and
the lessons he learned.
This
proud Virgin Islander learned that there are great
divides between people in the Virgin Islands. But,
he also learned that no matter our station in life,
no matter our race or place of birth, and no matter
our gender or age; we are all made of the same
stuff, all struggle with the same questions, and
we will all meet the same end.
Along with his parents, Basil’s
grandfather, the late Ernest Schulterbrandt; his
uncle, the late Earle B. Ottley; the late William D.
Roebuck; and Nab Eddie Bobo, were his mentors and
the shapers of the principled and thinking man that
he is today. They indoctrinated him with spiritual
and nationalistic values and provided him with great
insights into the Virgin Islands social, economic,
and political evolution. Basil’s
mentors encouraged him to obtain the best formal
training he could acquire because they knew that the
challenges of the 21st Century would
require leaders and decision makers that had the
intelligence and the global perspective to equally
match the power brokers from the federal government,
other nations, and corporate entities like HOVENSA,
Innovative, and Cruzan Rum.
Basil
has sought to balance intellectual and professional
pursuits with community service. He is currently a
member of the University of the Virgin Islands
Advisory Committee for the 5th
Constitutional Convention, a member of the African
Diaspora Youth Development Foundation, a former
Chairman of the WTJX Board of Directors, and a
former member of the St. Thomas/St. John Youth
Multi-service Center Board.
Basil
was also a researcher and feature writer for both
Pride Magazine and the Street Speaker for a span of
ten years. His writing brought him to the attention
of former Senator Judy M. Gomez who provided him
with his first legislative experience in 1993.
Basil
later earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from
the University of the Virgin Islands to acquire the
analytical discipline so that he would be prepared
to master complex issues like tax policy and pension
fund actuarial valuations. He subsequently worked
as a research analyst in the survey research unit of
the Eastern Caribbean Center at UVI before leaving
to continue his graduate studies at Duke University
in 1998. While at the ECC, he worked on the 1995
Population and Housing Survey, the 1997 Consumer
Expenditure Survey, and the first VI Statistical
Yearbook.
Basil
earned a Master of Public Policy, with a
concentration in international development, from
Duke University in 2000. He gained diverse
competencies in various disciplines -- such as
economics, public management, governance, and
program evaluation -- that prepared him to offer
informed insights into such issues as the
development of a constitution, political status
options, economic development, and education reform.
After
graduate school, Basil went to work for one of the
most respected and successful privately owned
information technology consulting firms in the USA
to prove himself among the best and brightest in
corporate America. SRA International recruited Basil
to enter a management track that would groom him to
become an officer in the company. He was entrusted
with managing the program operations and compliance
requirements for a portfolio of federal projects
valued at over $300 million.
In 2003,
Basil returned home to support his aging father and
to contribute to the Virgin Islands development. He
has served as Senator Louis Patrick Hill’s chief of
staff since 2003.
Basil still lives in the Savan
community with his wife of 10 years, the former
Kirsten Abrahams of Frederiksted, St. Croix, and
their daughter Serafina.
STAFF MEMBERS
St. Thomas
Kelvin Vanterpool, Chief of
Staff......................693-3612
Tanyka C. Brathwaite
.......................................693-3675
Catherine Bryan
................................................693-3613
Micha
Petersen...................................................693-3513
Fax.......................................................................693-3631
E-mail
..................................................bottley@legvi.org
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