At the 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting , Scotland was nominated for the position of Commonwealth Secretary-General by her native country of Dominica and defeated Antiguan diplomat Ronald Sanders , who was thought to have been the frontrunner for the position , and former deputy secretary-general for political affairs Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba of Botswana to become the 6th Commonwealth Secretary-General and the first woman to hold the post . She began her first of a maximum of two possible four-year terms on 1 April 2016
2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2015
Patricia Scotland