Helen Clark Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was New Zealand's fifth-longest-serving prime minister, and the second woman to hold that office. Clark was brought up on a farm outside Hamilton. She entered the University of Auckland in 1968 to study politics, and became active in the New Zealand Labour Party. After graduating she lectured in political studies at the university. Clark entered local politics
Helen Clark by secret ballot in October 2016. Clark finished fifth place in the sixth poll—her candidacy was effectively vetoed when three of the permanent Security Council members voted against her. Clark's bid for Secretary-General is the topic of a documentary film, "My Year With Helen", directed by Gaylene Preston, which premiered in February 2018. Clark was brought up as a Presbyterian Christian, attending Sunday school weekly. When she was Prime Minister she described herself as an agnostic. She married sociologist Peter Davis, her partner of five years in 1981, shortly before she was elected to Parliament. Clark had been under pressure