John Key

Sir John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th prime minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as leader of the New Zealand National Party from 2006 to 2016.

Key was born in Auckland to George Key (1914–1969) and Ruth Key (née Lazar; 1922–2000) on 9 August 1961.

His father was an English immigrant and a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and World War II, who died of a heart attack when his son was eight years old.

Key and his two sisters were raised in a state house in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr by his mother, an Austrian-Jewish refugee who escaped the Holocaust.

Key is the third prime minister or premier of New Zealand to have Jewish ancestry, after Julius Vogel and Francis Bell.

He attended Aorangi School, and then Burnside High School from 1975 to 1979, where he met his wife, Bronagh.

He attended the University of Canterbury and graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor of Commerce.

He went on to attend the University of Canterbury and earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree in accounting in 1981.

He also attended management studies courses at Harvard University.

Key's first job was as an auditor at McCulloch Menzies in 1982.

He then became a project manager at Christchurch-based clothing manufacturer Lane Walker Rudkin for two years.

He began working as a foreign exchange dealer at Elders Finance in Wellington, and rose to the position of head foreign exchange trader two years later, then moved to Auckland-based Bankers Trust in 1988.

He began a career in the foreign exchange market in New Zealand before moving overseas to work for Merrill Lynch, in which he became head of global foreign exchange in 1995, a position he would hold for six years.

In 1995, he joined Merrill Lynch as head of Asian foreign exchange in Singapore.

Some co-workers called him "the smiling assassin" for maintaining his usual cheerfulness while sacking dozens (some say hundreds) of staff after heavy losses from the 1998 Russian financial crisis.

In 1998, on learning of his interest in pursuing a political career, National Party president John Slater began working to recruit him.

Former party leader Jenny Shipley describes him as one of the people she "deliberately sought out and put my head on the line–either privately or publicly–to get them in there".

In 1999 he was appointed a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York until leaving in 2001.

He was a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 1999 to 2001.

As prime minister, Key led the Fifth National Government of New Zealand which entered government at the beginning of the late-2000s recession in 2008.

He was described as having socially liberal but fiscally conservative views and policies.

In his first term, Key's government implemented a GST rise and personal tax cuts, while enacting several austerity measures.

His government refused to renew license agreements for multiple television channels, including TVNZ 6, TVNZ 7, Kidzone and Heartland, while reducing funding for Radio New Zealand in real terms.

That same year he was promoted to Merrill's global head of foreign exchange, based in London, where he may have earned around US$2.25 million a year including bonuses, which is about NZ$5 million at 2001 exchange rates.

Key entered the New Zealand Parliament representing the Auckland electorate of Helensville as one of the few new National members of parliament in the election of 2002 following National's significant defeat of that year.

Auckland's population growth led to the formation for the 2002 general election of a new electorate called Helensville, which covered the north-western corner of the Auckland urban area.

Key beat long-serving National MP Brian Neeson (whose own Waitakere seat had moved on paper to being a Labour seat through the boundary changes) for the National Party Helensville selection.

At the 2002 general election Key won the seat with a majority of 1,705, ahead of Labour's Gary Russell, with Neeson, now standing as an independent, coming third.

In 2004, he was appointed Finance Spokesman for National and eventually succeeded Don Brash as the National Party leader in 2006.

After two years as leader of the Opposition, Key led his party to victory at the November 2008 general election.

He was subsequently sworn in as prime minister on 19 November 2008.

The National government went on to win two more general elections under his leadership: in November 2011 and September 2014.

In February 2011, after a major earthquake in Christchurch the nation's second largest city significantly affected the national economy, the government formed the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority.

In its second term, Key's government implemented a policy of partial privatisation of five state-owned enterprises, while voters in a citizens-initiated referendum on the issue were 2 to 1 opposed to the policy.

He also faced a severe housing crisis, especially in Auckland, and was widely criticised for a perceived lack of action.

In foreign policy, Key withdrew New Zealand Defence Force personnel from their deployment in the war in Afghanistan, signed the Wellington Declaration with the United States and pushed for more nations to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

After resigning from both posts in December 2016 and leaving politics, Key was appointed to the board of directors and role of chairman in several New Zealand corporations.

After his father died when he was eight, Key was raised by his single mother in a state-house in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr.

Key was expected to contest for a fourth term of office at the 2017 general election, but on 5 December 2016 he resigned as prime minister and leader of the National Party.

He was succeeded by Bill English on 12 December 2016.