Born: 5 October 1962 (age 62) Georgetown, British Guiana (present-day Guyana)
Political party: People’s Progressive Party/Civic.
Spouse: Mignon Bowen-Phillips.
Education: Inter-American Defense College, United States Army Command and General Staff College.
Alma mater: University of Guyana (BSS)Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (MS)
Military service:
Allegiance: Guyana
Branch/service: Guyana Defence Force
Years of service: 1980–2017
Rank: Brigadier
Commands: Chief of Defence Staff (2013–2018)
Mark Phillips was born on 5 October 1962 in Georgetown, Guyana, at the Georgetown Public Hospital Cooperation (GPHC) to parents Medford Phillips and Cynthia Alexander. At age 5, his parents moved to Christianburg, Linden, where his father was a mason who worked in the bauxite industry, at the time DEMBA. His mother died when he was age 7, and along with one of his brothers, he was raised solely by his father.
Phillips attended Christianburg Primary School, then Christianburg/Wismar Secondary School, also known as the Multilateral School, where he successfully completed the General Certificate Examination (GCE) and the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC). He was first employed as an acting teacher at the Linden Foundation School and then as a laboratory analyst with the Bauxite and Alumina Labs of GUYMINE in 1980.
Mark Anthony Phillips is a Guyanese politician and retired military officer who is the prime minister of Guyana and first vice president under President Irfaan Ali since August 2020. He served as the chief of staff of the Guyana Defence Force from 2013 to 2016. He graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in September 1981.
Phillips has a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Public Management from the University of Guyana and a Master of Science in Public Sector Management from La Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra. He also studied at the Inter-American Defence College in Washington, D.C., and the United States Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
