Helen Clark

Helen Clark serves as Patron of the Helen Clark Foundation, a non-partisan public policy think tank. She served as Prime Minister of New Zealand for three successive terms from 1999–2008 and as a member of Parliament in New Zealand for over 27 years. In April 2009, Helen Clark became Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), serving two terms through 2017. She was the first woman to lead the organization. She simultaneously chaired the United Nations Development Group, consisting of all UN development funds, programs, agencies, and departments. UNDP, during her tenure, was ranked the most transparent global development organization.

From 2020-2021 she Co-Chaired the WHO-mandated Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. She chairs the boards of the Extractive Industries Transparency Organization, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, and other public good organizations and initiatives, and is a board member of others.

Throughout her career, Ms. Clark’s leadership on policy, programming and advocacy, spanning the international, economic, social, environmental, and cultural spheres, has held a particular focus on sustainable development and climate. The impact of this work has been acknowledge by a range of organisations and countries with their most significant honors, including Member of the Order of New Zealand, the United Nations Environment Programme Champions of the Earth award, the Peace Prize of the Danish Peace Foundation, the New Zealand Commemoration Medal, the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal, the nuclear-Free Future Award, and the Star of the Solomon Islands amongst others. She holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Arts (Hons), and an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Auckland University, where she also taught political science.