Don Brash

Donald Thomas Brash (* September 24 1940 in Wanganui ) is a New Zealand politician. He was until 2006 the chairman of the New Zealand National Party and opposition leader in the New Zealand House of Representatives. His successor was John Key.

Brash studied at the University of Canterbury Economics, History and Political Science and a PhD from the Australian National University with a thesis on American investment in Australian industry. From 1966 to 1971 Brash worked at the World Bank and was then the board of several New Zealand companies and government agencies. In 1988 he became governor of New Zealand's central bank and remained so until his election to the New Zealand House of Representatives in 2002.

There he served first as a financial spokesman of the National Party and was elected its president in 2003. The parliamentary elections in 2005, he lost to the coalition under Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Brash joined the party and was 30 April 2011 chairman of the Party ACT New Zealand. On November 26, 2011, he gave the presidency because his party has not won enough votes in the 2011 general election.