Personal Life
George Speight hails from Naivicula, about ten kilometers from Korovou in Tailevu Province. He is the son of Sam Speight (sometimes known as Savenaca Tokainavo), a prosperous farmer of ethnic Fijian and European descent. The elder Speight is a war veteran who served his country in the successful Malayan campaign. He subsequently served as a backbencher in Rabuka's governments throughout the 1990s. His dual election win has proved the family's vast popularity up in Tailevu North. By the time his son attempted his putsch in 2000, however, Sam Speight was an opposition member of Parliament, his Fijian Political Party having lost power to the Indo-Fijian-led Labour Party of Mahendra Chaudhry in the elections of 1999. This blue ribbon Fijian communal seat of Tailevu North is one of the largest provinces in Fiji and has the distinction of being won by the family in succession beginning with the Hon Savenaca Tokainavo, his sons, Hon. Ilikini Naitini (George Speight) and now by the Hon. Samisoni Tikoinasau (Minister for Lands). There is no doubting however their democratic popularity and the ardent campaign for indigenous rights.
Speight has a son, Ely (born 1998) with Torika Rawlinson.
Speight graduated with Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Business from Michigan's Andrews University. He subsequently settled in Australia, where he worked as a sales representative for the Computer Orchard, a Brisbane-based Apple Computer dealer, and later as a branch manager for Metway Bank before returning to Fiji in 1996. He then became Chairman of Fiji Pine, Ltd. and of Fiji Hardwood Corporation, Ltd.. He also became a manager of Health Fiji, Ltd. but resigned due to shareholder personality conflicts.
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| Name | Speight, George |
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| Date of birth | 1957 |
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