Denis Vincent Napthine (born 6 March 1952) is a former Australian politician who was the 47th Premier of Victoria. Napthine was a Liberal Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, representing the electoral district of Portland from 1988 to 2002 and South-West Coast from 2002 to 2015. He was elected leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party on 6 March 2013 following the resignation of Ted Baillieu and was sworn in as premier on the same day. His party lost the Victorian state election on 29 November 2014 and he announced he would step down as leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, with Matthew Guy being elected his successor on 4 December. Early life Napthine was born in 1952 to Len and Theresa Napthine in Geelong, Victoria, as the third child in a family of ten children. Napthine spent his early school years at Winchelsea State School before attending Chanel College, a Catholic boys' school in Lovely Banks near Geelong. After graduating he attended the University of Melbourne, where he studied to be a veterinarian, undertaking a bachelor's and then a master's degree in veterinary science. He later completed a master's degree in business administration from Deakin University. Political career Napthine was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1988 as member for the country seat of Portland. He was re-elected in 1992, 1996 and 1999. Napthine was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health in 1992 and then promoted to Minister for Youth and Community Services in 1996 in Jeff Kennett's Liberal government, a position he held from 1996 to 1999. Following the defeat of the Liberal Party at the 1999 election, Kennett resigned as Liberal leader and Napthine was elected to take his place. Napthine had briefly served as Deputy Liberal Leader, having been elected to the position just shortly before Kennett stood down as Liberal Leader. During his term as Opposition Leader the Liberal–National coalition split, fracturing the opposition parties. Under Napthine's leadership, the Liberal Party did poorly in the polls and made no significant electoral inroads on the ruling Labor government. Shortly before the 2002 state election, Shadow Health Minister Robert Doyle challenged Napthine for the leadership of the Liberal Party. Doyle won the leadership by a narrow margin. At this election, Napthine ran in South-West Coast, essentially a reconfigured version of Portland. Although it was ancestrally Liberal territory, Napthine only managed to hold onto the