Josefina Algenia Valois is the Minister of Finance of the Ryccian Empire.

History

Josefina was born on April the 25th, 984 ADR, on the planet of Castiana. Her father descends from the noble Algenia family, one of the noble families of the world, and the mother is from the Valois family, who were of Tigonese commoner origin and became successful businessmen in the planet 600 years ago. As a result, she was born into the Core’s aristocracy, and was given an excellent education.

Despite her early upbringing, an event would change her life forever. At 18, her father became addicted to drugs and gambling, losing almost all their personal fortune. Since traditional aristocratic Core culture has a high degree of pride and honour, she and her family were ostracized from the aristocracy and became poor. This meant that, although she was admitted into the prestigious Imperial Academy at Daonlathas (the best university in the entire Empire to boot), she had to work in university in order to survive, and was shunned by its mostly wealthy alumni. Josefina described this as the “most transformative experience of my life, allowing me to see what the poor truly suffered”.

After finishing university, she went to business school in her native Castiana to obtain an MBA, becoming the first noblewoman in the planet to study completely on need-based and merit-based scholarships in 750 years. She was still shunned by both the Algenia and Valois families, who did not wish to have anything to do with her father. Once more, she had to chip in to survive. To this day, she is considered a political enemy of both families.

She began to work with the planet’s banks and companies when she finished business school, and gained her current wealth when she founded the Algenia-Castavile Group with her now-husband, who she had met at her time in business school. Despite his aristocratic upbringing, Josefina has described him as “very down to earth and humble”, something that may come from his nouveau riche mother. The ACG conglomerate has invested in various industries in the planet and in the Core, with its biggest success being the purchase of the Royelisse Bank, a Castianan bank previously held by the Valois family. She currently owns 47 billion credits in personal wealth.

In 1014, her political career began when she ran for the Governorship of Castiana. Her story is famous on the planet, with her commoner base seeing her not as a noblewoman, but as one of them by her experience. She was famous in her challenge of the then-financially influenced elections which had become manipulated by financial interests for seven decades, but her reasons for running were as much political as personal, as her rival was backed by the Algenia and Valois families. She was elected as Governor, and began the Grand Castianan Reform, conducting anti-corruption campaigns and got money out of politics. She also enacted business-friendly policies that increased the economy of Castiana during her tenure (in the Core, most of the population is business-friendly, so even the "Champion of the People" or whatever don't go and say "screw you business"). For this, she was re-elected.

She ran for Senator in 1022, as her second and final term would end soon. Popular in her home planet, she secured her seat with 60.1% of the vote.

In the Imperial Senate

Josefina was Senator for Castiana. She fought for legislation that would benefit her planet, but also pushed for anti-corruption measures with other Senators and Congressmen, as well as for business-friendly policies in The Imperial Rim, seen as the Final Frontier of the Empire.

In the Internationalist Question, Josefina sided with the internationalists, believing that contact with the unknown would increase trade and economic growth. For this, as well as for her economic knowledge, she rose in prominence in her party, and when the Pacifist Coalition won the elections in 1026, she was re-elected and became a close economic advisor to the new government. Due to a financial scandal involving her predecesor, Josefina was appointed as Minister of Finance of the Ryccian Empire.

As Minister of Finance

Josefina has set economic policy for the Empire since then, becoming known for her business-friendly measures. She opposed the 1028 budget, as, in her eyes, it incurred too much debt for the deficit to be sustainable. In the Empire, the annual budget can be sent back to the legislature by the Minister of Finance, but this can only be done once per budget. As a result, she sent it back, and the legislature passed an amended version with less debt.