Kerry Prendergast

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Kerry Prendergast (born 28 March 1953) has been Mayor of Wellington since 2001. She is the second woman to serve as mayor of Wellington.

1 Early and personal life
2 City Councillor
- 2.1 Mayor of Wellington
3 Voluntary work
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Early and personal life

Prendergast's professional background is in the health sector as a registered nurse and, for twenty five years, a midwife. She continued her midwifery role alongside her local government work until 2001. She has also been a voluntary grief counsellor. She holds a MBA degree from Victoria University of Wellington. She is married with two daughters and one son (Andrew).

[edit] City Councillor

She has had a long career in local body politics, having started her political life as a Tawa Borough councillor in 1986. In 1989 she was elected to Wellington City Council and has been re-elected every three years since then.

[edit] Mayor of Wellington

In 1995 Prendergast became Deputy Mayor to Mark Blumsky. In the 1999 general election Prendergast stood as a National list candidate, ranked 30th on the party's list. However, the National Party did not gain enough of the party vote for Prendergast to enter Parliament. She considered running again at the 2002 election, but in 2001 Mark Blumsky announced his intention not to run for the mayoralty again, and endorsed Prendergast's candidacy. During her term as Mayor, Prendergast instigated the policy of making Wellington the "Creative Capital". She has endorsed changing the Flag of New Zealand^[1].

[edit] Voluntary work

She is Vice President of Local Government New Zealand and a trustee of the Joe Aspell Trust and the NZ International Festival of the Arts. She is also an honorary life member of the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Society.

Mayor Prendergast is patron of a number or Wellington organisations and a director of Wellington International Airport Limited and the Wellington Region Association of Midwives.