Helen Clark
The Steward
Legacy, values and the long now, leadership as care and continuity.
Helen Clark exemplifies The Steward, a leader defined by disciplined custodianship of institutions and long-horizon public value. Across three terms as New Zealand's Prime Minister she ran a famously orderly government, prizing fiscal prudence, policy detail and cabinet cohesion over theatrics. Her reputation rested on competence and control, chairing processes tightly and holding ministers to account.
“Developing countries become emerging economies, this opens up markets for goods and services. There's the argument that development and prosperity also most cases will bring with it greater cohesion and peace in a country. So it's not going to lapse into civil war and conflict and cause problems for its neighbours and the world.”
“Well, I think what politics does as often exaggerate the differences between parties for differentiation, and the reality is that there's a lot of policy that's ongoing without a lot of change between governments of centre right and centre left. But that's not so often on display. There's a lot of collegial work.”
“Well, you're right, the trends have been very negative the last couple of years with that first year of COVID. We saw a rise in the numbers living in extreme poverty for the first time this century.”
“She had been ten times to New Zealand as queen. So in her first half century she'd become roughly on average twice a decade. Yeah, yeah, every five years. And she was there during the coronation tour at a very special time when there was a major tragedy in New Zealand with a train crash caused by a volcanic laha hitting the track.”
Pull up a Chair with Bina Mehta: “In conversation with Bina Mehta, Chair, KPMG UK”
LISTEN AT THE SOURCE ↗THE RECORD IS CHECKABLE