Prime Minister John Key was born in Auckland but moved to Christchurch when a child. He was educated at Burnside High School and then gained a B.Comm from the University of Canterbury.
John launched his investment banking career in New Zealand in the mid 80s. After 10 years in the New Zealand market he headed offshore, working in Singapore, London and Sydney for US investment banking giant Merrill Lynch. During that time he was in charge of a number of business units including global foreign exchange and European bond and derivative trading. In 1999 John was invited to join the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of NY and on two occasions undertook management studies at Harvard University in Boston.
In 2001, he headed back to New Zealand to fulfill a long held ambition to stand for Parliament for the National Party. He won the Helensville seat in 2002 with a majority of 1589. John has risen through the ranks since then, becoming deputy finance spokesman and then finance spokesman, rising to number 7 prior to the 2005 election. At the 2005 election he again won the Helensville seat, this time with a majority of 12,778. He continued to be the Party(TM)s finance spokesman and and was ranked at number 4 before being elected Leader on 27 November 2006.
In the November General Election 2008, John secured his position as MP for Helensville with a 18,562 vote majority.
John is married to Bronagh and has 2 children. When he has some spare time he likes to spend time with the family, cooking, playing golf and watching rugby.
Join the conversation with John at www.johnkey.co.nz
