A n e x c i t i n g j o u r n e y : f r o m F l o r i a n a , t o M a d r i d , B r u s s e l s a n d C a n b e r r a Gail Demanuele

Gail was born in Pieta (St Luke's), but she is furjaniza; both her parents are from Floriana, Caroline (Carol) and Salvatore (Silvio) She also has a younger brother, Dean. Incidentally, Gail was born in 1984 when her father Silvio (related to Floriana FC icon il-Koku Demanuele), played for Melita Eagles FC of Sydney as a guest Malta player

Talking about her early life, she told The Voice that she attended St Monica School in Gzira, and Junior College in Msida, before her studies at the University of Malta After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Communications and Psychology at the University of Malta in 2006, she decided to travel and work in Madrid, Spain

Ms Demanuele had only planned to stay for one year, but the country and the people brought her to stay for five years She lived in Madrid for four years teaching English in language schools Also, she studied for one year at the University of Salamanca, where she did her first Master's Degree in Occupational Risk Management

These experiences helped her grow and become more independent She also took the oppor- tunity to learn Spanish whilst appreciating the distinct but similar cultural values.

In 2011, Ms Demanuele returned to Malta to focus more on her career

In 2013, she started working within the secretariat of Dr Edward Zammit Lewis, then Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness and Economic Growth and later Minster for Tourism She worked there for almost five years on policies and projects and as a consultant before getting promoted to Chief of Staff She explained that this had been a rewarding experience and a privilege to have worked for Dr Zammit Lewis and the people of Malta

After such an experience, Ms Demanuele also had the opportunity to work at the Office of the Prime Minister as a consultant for a short time, as she had the chance to have her first experience

LEFT: During Malta National day 2022 in Canberra: (from left): Nagela Fernandes Maciel, Gail Demanuele, HC Mario Borg Farrugia, and Joanne Grima as a diplomat at the Permanent Representation office in Brussels, Belgium She worked there for a year as a Deputy Antici, a role to provide high-quality policy coordination and administrative support to the Antici and the Malta Permanent Representative

After one year of experience at the Permanent Representation, she returned to Malta, where she worked at Community Malta Previous to her current post, for two years she was the Head of Human Resources at Mater Dei Hospital.