- Key, John
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▪ prime minister of New Zealandin full John Phillip Keyborn Aug. 9, 1961, Auckland, N.Z.New Zealand business executive and politician who was leader of the New Zealand National Party (New Zealand National Party) (2006– ) and prime minister of New Zealand (2008– ).Key was the son of an English father and a Jewish mother, who fled Austria for the United Kingdom in 1939. The couple married in 1948 and immigrated to New Zealand, eventually settling in Auckland. When Key's father died in 1969, the family moved to Christchurch, where they lived in a state rental house and Key's mother worked as a night porter and cleaner to repay accumulated debt. Key did well at Burnside High School, where he excelled in public speaking, debating, and economics. He later studied accounting at the University of Canterbury, from which he graduated with a degree in commerce in 1983, the year before his marriage to fellow student Bronough Irene Dougan.After Prime Minister David Lange (Lange, David)'s 1984–87 Labour (New Zealand Labour Party) government loosened exchange controls on the New Zealand dollar, Key quit his job with a sportswear clothing manufacturer and took a position as a foreign currency trader in Wellington for Australia-based Elders Merchant Finance. In 1988 he was lured to the newly established Bankers Trust in Auckland. Beginning in 1995, Key worked in Singapore, London, and Sydney for American investment bankers Merrill Lynch (Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.), assuming responsibility for various business units, notably international foreign-exchange and European bond and derivative trading. He developed a reputation as a smart risk taker, and in 1999 he joined the foreign-exchange committee of the Federal Reserve (Federal Reserve System) Bank of New York. He also took management studies courses at Harvard University.Key returned to New Zealand in 2001 to stand for Parliament for the National Party. He won the Helensville (Auckland) seat the following year with a narrow majority of 1,589 votes; three years later he retained his seat with a majority of 12,778. In November 2006 Key, then party spokesman for finance, was elected to succeed departing National leader Don Brash. Key reinvigorated the party, with a renewed emphasis on education and reduced taxes. In New Zealand's general election on Nov. 8, 2008, the National Party took 59 of the 122 seats contested, and 11 days later Key was sworn in as prime minister.Neale McMillan
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Universalium. 2010.
