Résumé of Mayor Bob Harvey

Personal	Quote	Business Career
International Experience	Awards & citations	More about Bob

Biography

“One of New Zealand’s most innovative and creative thinkers”

- former Prime Minister David Lange

Mayor of New Zealand’s first Eco City – Waitakere (Oct 1992 – present day)

Bob Harvey was first elected Mayor of Waitakere City, New Zealand in 1992. In 1998 he became the first Mayor of Waitemata/Waitakere to be elected consecutively for more than two terms. Mayor Harvey has been seminal in a number of ground-breaking initiatives, including the eco city concept, establishing the first Maori standing Committee Te Taumata Runanga, and initiating this country’s only Memorandum of Understanding with Pacific Island peoples.

He has also been instrumental in moves to permanently protect, by law and by Parliamentary legislation, Waitakere’s rainforest, the Waitakere Ranges, from over development and subdivision. During Bob Harvey’s time as Mayor, Waitakere City has proudly built and opened four new libraries and in mid 2006 Council staff will be moving into a new Civic Centre which will create a Waitakere CBD in Henderson. As well as the Civic Centre the Waitakere Central development features a public transport hub and business centre.

President New Zealand Labour Party (Feb 1999 – Nov 2000)

The former president of the Labour Party, Bob Harvey was invited by the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, to take the role vacated by the sudden death of Mr Michael Hirschfelt and to lead the party into the 1999 general election from which Labour emerged as the government.

Business Career

Founder / Chairman Macharman Ayer Advertising Agency (1962 – 1992)

Bob Harvey founded this agency in 1962 and it grew from a creative shop to one of the country’s most successful agencies, handling major New Zealand brand campaigns as well as political and environmental strategies and achieving billings of more than $20million. MacHarman Ayer counted among its clients New Zealand Steel, New Zealand Police Forces, Accident Compensation Commission and Fisher and Paykel.

Political Campaign Strategist

Bob Harvey was a strategist and consultant for the election campaigns of Prime Ministers:

• The Rt Hon. Norman Kirk in 1969 and 1972
• The Rt Hon Bill Rowling in 1975
• The Rt Hon David Lange in 1984

He was also strategic counsel for:

• The Rt Hon Mike Moore
• Sir Dove Myer Robsinon
• Dame Catherine Tizard

New Zealand Government Appointments

Tourist Hotel Corporation of New Zealand, 1984 – 1989
New Zealand Film Commission deputy chairman, 1986 – 1992
Health Sponsorship Council of New Zealand, 1988 – 1994, chairman 1990 – 1992
New Zealand Film Commission, 2001 – 2006
Te Papa Board, 2006 – present day

Member

Auckland Mayoral Forum, Chair 1999 – 2000
Local Government New Zealand, 1992 – 2006
Eisenhower Fellowship Nomination Committee, 2006 – present day

Chairman

Local Government New Zealand Metropolitan Mayors Sector, 2005 – present day

Board Member

Aotea Centre Trust Board (Note: The Aotea Centre is New Zealand’s pre-eminent entertainment centre)

International Experience

• Speaker Mayors for Peace conference Hiroshima at time of 60th anniversary of the bombing in 2005
• New Zealand representative for local government at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio +10) in Johannesburg in 2002
• Keynote speaker American Water Works Association Honolulu 2001
• New Zealand local government keynote speaker at conference in Hawaii 1999
• United Nations Mayors for Peace Award 1998 – one of only eight mayors in the world to receive this honour
• Asia Pacific representative at environmental conference Hawaii in 1998
• Led New Zealand delegation of local government against nuclear testing in the Pacific 1997
• Keynote speaker at ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) HABITAT II conference in Istanbul in 1995
• Keynote speaker Pathways to Growth at the invitation of British Prime Minister John Major, Manchester 1993
• Attended Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and as a result Waitakere, the following year, became the first city in New Zealand to officially adopt Agenda 21

Awards

Honours conferred on His Worship the Mayor of Waitakere include:

• Life Membership of the NZ Labour Party – 2000
• New Zealand Medal for Community Service - 1990
• Queens Service Order for Services to the Community - 1990
• Honorary Citizenship of Waitakere Sister City Ningbo, People’s Republic of China - 2005
• New Zealand Advertising Hall of Fame – inaugural inductee 2007