23 Facts About Mark Blumsky

Mark Herbert Blumsky was born on 29 August 1957 and is a former New Zealand politician and diplomat.

Mark Blumsky was Mayor of Wellington from 1995 to 2001, and a Member of Parliament for the National Party from 2005 to 2008.

Mark Blumsky was born in Nelson in 1957, the son of broadcaster and journalist John Mark Blumsky, and educated at St Bede's College and Linwood College in Christchurch.

Mark Blumsky progressed from salesperson, to merchandise manager, to footwear buyer, to national sales manager.

In mid-1995 Mark Blumsky sought the nomination of the centre-right Citizens' Association electoral ticket for the mayoralty, but lost out to Nigel Gould, the former chairman of the Wellington Harbour Board.

Mark Blumsky was elected Mayor of Wellington in 1995 and re-elected in 1998.

However, during his first term in office Mark Blumsky controversially agreed to sell the council's stake in the company, citing commercially sensitive information.

Mark Blumsky was the inaugural patron of the Wellington Gay Business group GAP.

Mark Blumsky took pride in living in an inner-city apartment and going out on the town in the evenings.

Mark Blumsky retired in 2001 and endorsed then deputy mayor Kerry Prendergast as his successor.

Mark Blumsky went on to win the mayoralty in 2001 and was re-elected in 2004 and 2007.

From September 2002 to July 2004 Mark Blumsky was founding director of Creative HQ, a business incubator for high-growth export-oriented start-ups.

In early 2004 Mark Blumsky joined United Future at the urging of its leader Peter Dunne, an old school friend.

Mark Blumsky, dubbed by media the man with "the most charismatic eyebrows in politics", served as Party President and confirmed he was considering running for Parliament for the party.

In October 2004, Mark Blumsky announced that he would seek the National Party candidacy for the Wellington Central electorate, and was nominated unopposed in November.

In June 2005 the National Party released its party list for the elections later that year and Mark Blumsky was ranked 36.

Mark Blumsky's campaign was marred by an incident in which he received a black eye and other abrasions when returning home late at night.

Mark Blumsky said he did not recall the incident but believed he had been assaulted.

In September 2010, Mark Blumsky was appointed High Commissioner to Niue, replacing acting High Commissioner John Bryan.

Mark Blumsky was succeeded by Ross Ardern in February 2014.

Mark Blumsky married a Niuean, Pauline Rex, in 2012 and now lives permanently on Niue.

Mark Blumsky represented Niue in lawn bowls at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, competing in the men's pairs and men's four, but did not progress beyond the group stage in either event.

Mark Blumsky ran as a candidate in the 2020 Niuean general election but was unsuccessful.