TRH Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Ardern was elected Prime Minister of New Zealand in 2017 at the age of 37 and became the country’s youngest Prime Minister in more than 150 years. Ardern is the world’s youngest female head of government.

Prime Minister Ardern was born in the city of Hamilton, New Zealand. She attended high school before graduating from the University of Waikato with a Bachelor of Communication Studies in Politics and Public Relations. While studying, the Prime Minister joined the New Zealand Labour Party at age 18.

Post-university, she worked as an adviser in the office of then-Prime Minister Helen Clark. In 2005 she went to London and worked in the Government Cabinet Office of British Prime Minister Tony Blair as an Assistant Director for Better Regulation Executive in the Department for Business and Enterprise, and on a review of Policing in England and Wales. In 2007 she was elected President of the International Union of Socialist Youth. The following year she entered New Zealand’s Parliament as a list candidate. At age 28 she entered the House of Representatives as its youngest member.
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She became the MP for the Auckland electorate Mt Albert in early 2017, and the Leader of the Labour Party in August 2017. As well as Prime Minister, she holds the roles of Minister for National Security and Intelligence, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, and Minister for Child Poverty Reduction.

In 2018 Prime Minister Arden gave birth to her first child, and became the first leader of a country in 30 years to give birth while in office.