Damon Ieremia Salesa was born on 30 December 1972 and is a New Zealand academic.
10 Facts About Damon Salesa
1.
2.
Damon Salesa was the first Rhodes Scholar of Pacific descent, obtaining his PhD from the University of Oxford.
3.
Damon Salesa was an associate professor of history at the University of Michigan, before returning to Auckland where he was co-head of Te Wananga o Waipapa and pro vice-chancellor at the University of Auckland.
4.
In 2017, Damon Salesa attracted significant press both with claims that Auckland has "residential segregation", and that Pacific Island sports stars are denied governance roles.
5.
In November 2021, Damon Salesa was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of Auckland University of Technology.
6.
In late October 2022, Damon Salesa confirmed that AUT was proceeding with plans to make 250 full-time staff including 170 academic staff redundant.
7.
In justifying the redundancies, Damon Salesa cited rising salary costs, declining government funding, and a projected decline in the number of student enrollments for 2023.
8.
In 2021, Damon Salesa was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Aparangi, in recognition of "his outstanding interdisciplinary contribution to Pacific Studies".
9.
Damon Salesa won the General non-fiction award at the 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for An Indigenous Ocean.
10.
Damon Salesa is married to Jenny Damon Salesa, a lawyer and member of the New Zealand parliament for the Labour Party.