Ben Keneally 2003. However, Labor's affirmative action rules required a female candidate, so he stood down in favour of Kristina. Since retiring from council, Keneally has been an Associate Director for The Boston Consulting Group. Ben Keneally Ben Keneally is an Australian Labor Party politician. He was the Mayor of Botany Bay from 2012–2016. He is the husband of former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally. Keneally grew up in Gladesville, New South Wales. Educated at Holy Cross College, Ryde and the University of Sydney, Keneally previously worked as a management consultant, for Medical Imaging Australia Limited (MIA), as a director within the NSW
Thomas Keneally there. By 1942, the family had moved to 7 Loftus Crescent, Homebush, a working-class suburb in the west of Sydney and Keneally was enrolled at Christian Brothers St Patrick's College, Strathfield. Shortly after, his brother John was born. Keneally studied Honours English for his Leaving Certificate in 1952, under Brother James Athanasius McGlade, and won a Commonwealth scholarship. Keneally then entered St Patrick's Seminary, Manly, to train as a Catholic priest. Although he was ordained as a deacon while at the seminary, after six years there he left in a state of depression and without being ordained to the priesthood.