Roger Kerr

For the Australian rules football player and coach, see Roger Kerr (footballer).

Roger Lawrence Kerr, CNZM (17 January 1945 – 28 October 2011), a public policy and business leader, was the executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable,[1][2] a free-market think-tank based in Wellington, New Zealand.

Career

Kerr attended Appleby Primary and Waimea College in Nelson. His parents farmed in the Nelson province.[3] He held an MA (Honours, First Class) (in his Arts degree he studied French) from the University of Canterbury and a BCA from Victoria University of Wellington. Dr Sir Roderick Deane, the senior government official and businessman, who lectured economics, said Kerr was "the most outstanding economics student I ever had when I was teaching".[4]

He served as a director of the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand from 1986 to 1994,[5] as a member of the Council of Victoria University of Wellington from 1995 to 1999, and as a member of the Group Board of Colonial Limited in Melbourne from 1996 to 2000.[6]

Kerr spent much of his career in the economic policy debate in New Zealand, mainly through written commentary. Kerr was a vocal proponent of Rogernomics and of policies that can be broadly characterised as free market. Before joining the New Zealand Business Roundtable, he joined the New Zealand Treasury at age 32. At the Treasury he served as Director of Economics II and subsequently became an assistant secretary.

Prior to Kerr's time at the Treasury he worked at Ministry of Foreign Affairs including as a diplomat in Brussels.[7]

Personal life

Kerr was married to Margaret Northcroft for over 30 years with whom he had three sons, Bernard, Nicholas and Richard, two of whom live in the United States and one of whom lives in New Zealand. The marriage to Northcroft ended in divorce. He married Catherine Isaac in January 2010. Kerr died on 28 October 2011, after battling metastatic melanoma for a year.[8][9][10][11]

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 "Roundtable chief honoured". The New Zealand Herald. 20 September 2001. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  2. ↑ "NEW ZEALAND BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE". 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2011. KERR
  3. ↑ McKinnon, M. Treasury - The New Zealand Treasury, 1840-2000, (2003). p 292
  4. ↑ McKinnon, M. Treasury - The New Zealand Treasury, 1840-2000, (2003). p 292.
  5. ↑ "ELECTRICITY CORPORATION OF NEW ZEALAND LIMITED". business.govt.nz. 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  6. ↑ "COLONIAL LIMITED". business.govt.nz. 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  7. ↑ Roughan, John (5 November 2011). "Roger Kerr: Always a few steps ahead". nzherald.co.nz. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  8. ↑ "'National treasure' Roger Kerr dies". nzherald.co.nz. 29 October 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2011. High-profile business leader Roger Kerr has died after a year-long battle with metastatic melanoma.
  9. ↑ "Roger Kerr: A life in pictures". nzherald.co.nz. 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  10. ↑ "Business leader Roger Kerr dies". stuff.co.nz. 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  11. ↑ "Kerr lauded as strong advocate". nzherald.co.nz. 30 October 2011. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
  12. ↑ "The Queen's Birthday Honours 2011". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 6 June 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.

External links

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