18 Facts About Celia Wade-Brown

Celia Wade-Brown previously served as the 34th mayor of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, from 2010 until 2016.

Celia Wade-Brown defeated Prendergast by 176 votes in the 2010 single transferable vote mayoral election.

Celia Wade-Brown did not contest the Wellington mayoralty in the 2016 local election for a third term.

Celia Wade-Brown attended The Holt School in Wokingham, Berkshire, England.

Celia Wade-Brown started her professional life with IBM in the United Kingdom, and moved to Wellington in 1983.

Celia Wade-Brown first stood for the Green Party as a list candidate under the Alliance banner in the 1996 election.

In 2010 Celia Wade-Brown decided to run for Mayor of Wellington instead of standing again in her council seat in Wellington's Southern ward.

In total, Celia Wade-Brown received 24,881 votes, compared to Prendergast's 24,705 votes.

Celia Wade-Brown did not favour Wellington's adopting a 'super city' type council like Auckland, though she supported reducing the number of councils in greater Wellington from nine to "three or four".

Celia Wade-Brown was re-elected as Mayor of Wellington in October 2013, beating her main rival John Morrison 27,171 to 24,691 after five rounds of vote allocation.

Celia Wade-Brown listed her priorities for the first 100 days as "the south coast cycle lanes, completing the draft annual plan before Christmas, agreeing on three-year priorities, taking first steps towards a living wage for council staff, slimming down council-owned companies and continuing to improve shared services with other councils".

Celia Wade-Brown was criticised heavily for her involvement in the construction of a cycleway in the Wellington suburb of Island Bay.

Celia Wade-Brown was expected to run for reelection in 2016, but announced that she would not run for the mayoralty again.

Celia Wade-Brown moved permanently to the Mangatarere Valley outside Carterton in 2017 in a property she had owned with her husband since 1987.

Celia Wade-Brown was a candidate in the Wairarapa seat again at the 2023 election, and was 15th on the Green party list.

Celia Wade-Brown was a founding member of the New Zealand Internet Society.

In 2002 Celia Wade-Brown founded Living Streets Aotearoa, a walking-advocacy organisation with 15 branches.

Celia Wade-Brown is married to Alastair Nicholson and has two sons.