Helen Clark

Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017.

She was New Zealand's fifth-longest-serving prime minister, and the second woman to hold that office.

Clark was brought up on a farm outside Hamilton.

She entered the University of Auckland in 1968 to study politics, and became active in the New Zealand Labour Party.

After graduating she lectured in political studies at the university.

In 1971 she assisted Labour candidates to the Auckland City Council, three of whom were elected.

Clark was a junior lecturer in political studies at the University of Auckland from 1973 to 1975.

Clark entered local politics in 1974 in Auckland but was not elected to any position.

Clark studied at Te Pahu Primary School, at Epsom Girls' Grammar School in Auckland and at the University of Auckland, where she majored in politics and graduated with an MA (Honours) in 1974.

Her thesis focused on rural political behaviour and representation.

As a teenager Clark became politically active, protesting against the Vietnam War and campaigning against foreign military bases in New Zealand.

Clark has worked actively in the New Zealand Labour Party for most of her life.

Following this, she stood for the Auckland City Council herself in 1974 and 1977.

While generally polling well, she never won a seat, missing out by only 105 votes in the latter.

In 1974 she sought the nomination for the Auckland Central electorate, but lost to Richard Prebble.

She instead stood for, a National safe seat.

Clark studied abroad on a University Grants Committee post-graduate scholarship in 1976, and then lectured in political studies at Auckland again while undertaking her PhD (which she never completed) from 1977 until her election to Parliament in 1981.

Her father supported National that election.

Clark served as a member of Labour's national executive committee from 1978 until September 1988, and again from April 1989.

She chaired the University of Auckland Princes Street branch of the Labour Party during her studies, becoming active alongside future Labour politicians including Richard Prebble, David Caygill, Margaret Wilson and Richard Northey.

Clark held the positions of president of the Labour Youth Council, executive member of the party's Auckland Regional Council, secretary of the Labour Women's Council and member of the Policy Council.

She was the 11th deputy prime minister of New Zealand from 1989 to 1990 serving under prime ministers Geoffrey Palmer and Mike Moore.

After Labour's narrow defeat in the, Clark challenged Moore for leadership of the party and won, becoming the leader of the Opposition.

Following the, Labour formed a governing coalition, and Clark was sworn in as prime minister on 10 December 1999.

Clark led the Fifth Labour Government, which implemented several major economic initiatives including Kiwibank, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme and KiwiSaver.

Her government also introduced the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004, which caused major controversy.

In foreign affairs, Clark sent troops to the Afghanistan War, but did not contribute combat troops to the Iraq War, and ordered a deployment to the 2006 East Timorese crisis.

She was ranked by Forbes as the 20th-most powerful woman in the world in 2006.

She advocated a number of free-trade agreements with major trading partners, including becoming the first developed nation to sign such an agreement with China.

After three successive electoral victories, her government was defeated in the ; Clark resigned as Prime Minister and party leader on 19 November 2008.

She was succeeded as prime minister by John Key of the National Party, and as leader of the Labour Party by Phil Goff.

Following one unsuccessful attempt, she was elected to Parliament in as the member for Mount Albert, an electorate she represented until 2009.

Clark held numerous Cabinet positions in the Fourth Labour Government, including minister of housing, minister of health and minister of conservation.

Clark resigned from Parliament in April 2009 to become the first female head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

In 2016, she stood for the position of secretary-general of the United Nations, but was unsuccessful.

She left her UNDP administrator post on 19 April 2017 at the end of her second four-year term and was succeeded by Achim Steiner.

In 2019, Clark became the patron of the Helen Clark Foundation.

Clark was the eldest of four daughters of a farming family at Te Pahu, west of Hamilton, in the Waikato.

Her mother, Margaret McMurray, of Irish birth, was a primary school teacher.

Her father, George, was a farmer.