Episode 50: Mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown

In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 50, our guest is the Mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown.

Wayne Brown is probably New Zealand’s most colourful and best qualified city Mayors. His has been a fascinating life, with experiences ranging from building a mine in Australia to chairing not one but three of our District Health Boards.

He grew up in Auckland and went to Auckland Grammar which he says he didn’t particularly enjoy. But an engineering degree from Auckland University set him on a course that would take him around the world and back to New Zealand where his fifty years in business and politics has seen him make a substantial impact.

Along the way, he established his own engineering firm and he was good enough at surfing to participate in competitions and good enough at rugby to play on Eden Park. 

Engineering turned into property development and following a move to the north of Auckland, he developed subdivisions and built factories, apartments and commercial buildings.

He developed a reputation for ‘sorting things out’ which led him to chair not one, but three district health boards, a semi political forerunner to him winning the mayoralty of the Far North region, a role he held for two terms.

And then came the big one. He ran for the Auckland Mayoralty in 2022 with a promise to “Fix Auckland”. He won by a margin few had predicted and despite some setbacks, including the Cyclone Gabrielle flooding in early 2023, has made consistent and steady progress against his goals for the city.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast Wayne Brown talks to Bruce Cotterill about a very full life, the decisions he’s made and his hopes for Auckland’s future. He speaks with enthusiasm about two major pieces of infrastructure that will be completed in 2026 – the Central Rail Loop and the Convention Centre at Sky City – both long overdue but both set to make a major impact on the future of the city.

And he talks about a health and fitness regime that sees him going into an election where he is seeking office for a term that will take him into his eighties.

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