Kerry Prendergast

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

Early and personal life
Prendergast's professional background is in the health sector as a registered nurse and, for 25 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 Master of Business Administration degree from Victoria University of Wellington. She is married and has two daughters and one son. Kerry Prendergast's husband Rex Nicholls runs a Wellington property development company.

City Councillor
She has had a long and distinguished 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.

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 Mayor again, and endorsed Prengergast's candidacy for the mayoralty. She is standing for re-election to the mayoralty in the October 2007 local body elections. During her term as Mayor, Prendergast instigated the policy of making Wellington the "Creative Capital". She has endorsed changing the Flag of New Zealand.

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.

External link

 * Wellington City Council - Mayor Prendergast