Kerry Prendergast is in her second term as Mayor of Wellington. She was elected Mayor in 2001 after serving for six years as Deputy Mayor.

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 successfully elected to council every three years since then.

Her 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 Degree from Victoria University of Wellington.

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 Ltd and the Wellington Region Association of Midwives.

She is standing for re-election to the mayoralty in the October 2007 local body elections.

28 March 1953Married, two daughters, one son