Renowned New Zealand PM will speak at Brown on October 5

Former NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to speak at Brown about global leadership

In an Odgen Memorial Lecture on Oct. 5, Ardern will share insights from her six years as prime minister, her commitment to women’s empowerment and her passionate advocacy for climate action.

Jacinda Ardern, who served as prime minister of New Zealand from 2017 to 2023, will visit Brown University on Thursday, Oct. 5, to deliver the 102^nd Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’60 Memorial Lecture on International Affairs.

In a presentation titled “Global Leadership in the 21^st Century,” Ardern will share insights from her career in public service.

In 2017, Ardern became prime minister of New Zealand at just 37 years of age. 

During her time in office, she faced the challenges of a live-streamed domestic terror attack against the nation’s Muslim community, a volcanic eruption and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Ardern’s focus on people, kindness and what she has called “pragmatic idealism” saw New Zealand achieve some of the lowest losses of life experienced by any developed nation through the pandemic, the ban of military style semi-automatic weapons, and creation of the Christchurch Call to Action to eliminate violent extremism online, with which Ardern continues to hold the role of special envoy. 

Ardern is a champion of women’s empowerment. While in office, New Zealand reached 50% representation of women in parliament and on government-appointed boards. 

She decriminalized abortion, improved pay equity laws and extended paid parental leave to six months — all while being only the second woman in the world to have a baby while leading her country. 

She is a passionate advocate on climate action and is a board member of The Earthshot Prize, which focuses on solutions to climate change and environmental issues. 

Ardern is the 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Hauser Leader in the university’s Center for Public Leadership. 

She is also the Knight Tech Governance Leadership Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, where she focuses on ways to improve content standards and platform accountability for extremist content online.

Ardern holds an honorary doctorate from Harvard University and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Waikato in New Zealand.

The Thursday, Oct. 5, event at Brown will take place at 5:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Exact location information will be provided upon registration.

For tickets and more information, visit brown.edu/ogden.