If there’s one thing we’ve learned in recent years, it’s that people who have little-to-no experience in politics can become heads of state. It wasn’t always like that, of course. For decades upon decades, most heads of state had long careers in politics. In the U.S., for example, a U.S. president would have a significant history of being a senator, congressperson, governor, etc. Nowadays? Not always so much.
Christchurch native Christopher Luxon began his career as businessman by working for Unilever from 1993 to 2011. The job had him working in Wellington (1993–1995), Sydney (1995–2000), London (2000–2003), Chicago (2003–2008) and Toronto (2008–2011) and by the end of his tenure at Unilevel, he had risen to the position of president and CEO of its Canadian operations.
Luxon joined Air New Zealand in May, 2011. He started with the airline as a group general manager but by June 2012, was promoted to CEO upon the resignation of his predecessor, Robert Fyfe.
Luxon was already working for Air New Zealand (although was not yet CEO) when the airline announced its rebranding in July, 2012. During that time, the airline stopped using the teal and green colors that had represented the airline since 1939, and instead began using black as the brand color (at the time, Fyfe was still CEO. He said of the rebranding: “Black has resonated well with our customers and staff who identify with it as the colour of New Zealand and a natural choice for our national airline. It inspires pride, is part of our Kiwi identity and a symbol of Kiwi success on the world stage.”)
Another new livery was announced, this time while Luxon was CEO. It came in two versions. The first was predominantly white with a black strip running downwards on the rear fuselage from the tail, adorned with a koru logo in white, to disappear downwards just aft of the junction of the wings with the fuselage. The black and white fern mark adorns the fuselage. This livery is used on most of the fleet.
Left: Teal & Green livery (PC: / Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Right: Black livery with fern (PC: / Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Like any CEO of an airline, Luxon had his fans and his foes. During his 8 years of tenure at Air New Zealand, the airline’s profits grew to record levels and the company was named Australia’s most trusted brand on more than one occasion. But he was also once described as a, “pompous bell-end oblivious to the struggles of those around him, even if they have the profound misfortune to work for him.” (Bartholomew_Custard) and “…I have heard there are many metrics that went backwards [under Luxon’s lead]. Staff morale/treatment and customer outcomes are two big ones – an example of the latter being major Koru lounge overcrowding a few years ago pre-Covid (r/nz may feel a sense of schadenfreude at that).” (Primary_Engine_9273)
Ultimately, Luxon inherited an already successful airline during a time period where global travel was at an all time peak. He did what he had to do to keep the share price and balance sheet looking good, even if that meant angering both staff and passengers at the expense of shareholders (how very “American” of him).
Luxon announced his resignation from Air New Zealand in June, 2019 (the man who replaced him was Greg Foran, former CEO of Walmart U.S.A.). At the time, he hinted that he might try a political career with the country’s National Party, with the country’s a center-right political party (New Zealand’s left-center party is the Labour Party. Jacinda Adern, the most recent Labour Party leader, was New Zealand’s prime minister until she announced her resignation in early 2023).
I will fully admit that I know little about New Zealand politics. So I will need to lean on Wikipedia to explain Luxon’s 3-year history in the thick of it:
After Jami-Lee Ross resigned from National over accusations of fraud against the party, Luxon secured the National Party candidacy for the Botany electorate, which has always been won by National and was regarded as a safe seat for them, in November 2019. He won in a selection contest with National Party list MP Agnes Loheni, Howick Local Board deputy chair Katrina Bungard, cancer drug campaigner Troy Elliott, and tech businessman Jake Bezzant, who was later selected as National’s candidate for Upper Harbour.
Luxon won the seat in the 2020 New Zealand general election, defeating Labour’s candidate Naisi Chen by a margin of 3,999 votes, and decreasing National’s stronghold on the electorate by 9.17%.
In his maiden speech, Luxon praised Martin Luther King Jr. and Kate Sheppard as part of a defence of Christians such as himself in public life, claiming that being Christian had become an identity that “it has become acceptable to stereotype as being extreme.”
It was often speculated that Luxon would become leader of the National Party. After the removal of Judith Collins as party leader on 25 November 2021, Luxon was cited as a potential replacement. He took the leadership on 30 November, following the withdrawal of his main opponent, Simon Bridges.
In early August 2022, Luxon accompanied Prime Minister Ardern, Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni and Minister of Pacific Peoples William Sio on a state visit to Samoa to mark the 60th anniversary of Samoa’s independence and affirm bilateral relations between the two countries.
As luck would have it, I have a friend who moved with her husband from California to New Zealand about two years ago. She said the National and Labour parties are similar to our Republican and Democrat parties to an extent, but it’s the far-right and -left groups that are closer to the extremists we’re used to hearing about on the news here.
Meanwhile, there you go – an airline CEO made it to Prime Minister. Maybe there’s hope for Scott Kirby, Ed Bastian, and Robert Isom after they’re done at United, Delta and American, respectively.
***Many thanks to Remy G. for her Reader’s Digest Condensed Version of Kiwi politics! 😉
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