The Hon. Datuk Seri Panglima Dr. Jeffrey G. Kitingan

The Hon. Datuk Seri Panglima Dr. Jeffrey G. Kitingan is the Deputy Chief Minister I of Sabah since January 2023 and State Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries of Sabah for the second term since September 2020. He served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah II from October 2020 to his promotion in January 2023 and the first term in the position in May 2018. In January 2023, he was appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister I of Sabah succeeding Bung Mokhtar, who was dropped due to a political crisis (but retained his ministerial portfolio). At the federal level, he served as the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture from March 2020 to his resignation in September 2020 and Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government from August 1994 to May 1995. He has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Keningau since May 2018, Member of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly for Tambunan since May 2018 and Bingkor from 1994 to 2004 and again from May 2013 to May 2018. 

He has served and been founding President of the Homeland Solidarity Party (STAR), a component party of the ruling Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and a former component party of the federal and state ruling Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition, since July 2016.

He was born in the town of Kota Marudu but hailed from the interior district of Tambunan. He graduated with an Master of Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has a PhD awarded in 1984 from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University. His brother, Joseph Pairin Kitingan served as the Chief Minister of Sabah from 1985 to 1994.