Claire Szabó


Claire Szabó is a New Zealand chief executive officer and since 2019 President of the New Zealand Labour Party.

Biography

Her father came to New Zealand as a refugee from Hungary in 1956 following the Hungarian Uprising, her mother was a nurse. She grew up in Papakura in a council house.
She studied music at the University of Auckland and later gained degrees at Trinity College Dublin in Education Management, Victoria University of Wellington in Commerce and Administration and Harvard University in Public Administration.
In 2006, aged just 27, she became the Chief Executive Officer of English Language Partners New Zealand. In 2013 she became the Chief Executive Officer of Habitat for Humanity New Zealand. In 2010 she was both named young executive of the year and won the New Zealand Institute of Management award.
Szabó joined the Labour Party in 2007 and stood as the Labour candidate in the electorate of at the, and was number 38 on the party list. She was defeated by the incumbent, Maggie Barry of National Party by a margin of 16,503 votes. On 30 November 2019 she was elected President of the Labour Party following the resignation of Nigel Haworth earlier that year.

Personal life

She is married to Rowan Johnston, a choir conductor and have two children.
Szabó speaks fluent Hungarian, the mother tongue of her father.