Christopher Luxon

Christopher Mark Luxon (/ˈlʌksən/; born 19 July 1970) is a New Zealand politician and former business executive who has served as the 42nd prime minister of New Zealand since November 2023. He served as leader of the Opposition from 2021 to 2023. Luxon became member of Parliament (MP) for Botany in 2020. He had previously been the chief executive officer (CEO) of Air New Zealand from 2012 to 2019.

Luxon was born in Christchurch and grew up in Howick in East Auckland, before studying commerce at the University of Canterbury. He worked for Unilever from 1993 and held senior roles at Unilever Canada in 2008, joining Air New Zealand as group general manager in 2011 and succeeding as CEO the following year.

He won the pre-selection for the safe National Party seat of Botany in East Auckland in 2019, and retained the seat for National at the 2020 election despite a landslide defeat for the party nationally.

Often touted as a potential National Party leader during a turbulent time for the party politically, Luxon won the leadership unopposed on 30 November 2021, after a party crisis caused the removal of previous leader Judith Collins. He led his party to a plurality of seats at the 2023 general election. Subsequently he was sworn in as prime minister on 27 November 2023, and leads the Sixth National Government, with the aid of two other parties, ACT and NZ First.