Ashley Cameron Church (born 26 February 1964) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

business executive, commentator and former politician.

Early life

Church was born in

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

and raised in Napier where he was educated at Tamatea High School.

Political career

In 1987 he stood as the National Party candidate for the parliamentary electorate of , getting the second highest number of votes in the electorate. In 1989 he became the youngest person ever elected to Napier City Council. During his time on the council he attracted both strong support and strong opposition for his views. He was responsible for the ‘NapierLife’ Marketing program. He lost his Council seat in 1998 after serving three terms.

Community activities

His community activity has included roles as National Council Member of New Zealand Jaycees, Executive Councillor of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce, National Board member of Towns & Cities New Zealand, Creator and Organiser of the Hawke's Bay Summer Festival, and Organiser of the 1985 North Shore Telethon Centre. He has been a Director of the

Hawke's Bay Airport Hawke's Bay Airport , commonly referred to as Napier Airport, is Hawke's Bay's main commercial airport, serving domestic flights to the main centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch as well as smaller centres such as Gisborne, Wairoa ...

Marineland of New Zealand Marineland of New Zealand was a marine mammal park in Napier, New Zealand. The park opened in 1965 and closed to the public in 2008. During the time it was open, Marineland housed several species of native and introduced marine wildlife, most ...

and the

National Aquarium of New Zealand The National Aquarium of New Zealand, formerly Napier Aquarium, is a public aquarium on Marine Parade in Napier, New Zealand. It was started in 1957 and moved to its present location in 1976. It is owned by Napier City Council. In addition to ma ...

Work history

Church was Chief Executive Officer of the Auckland Property Investors Association from 2005 to 2007 but left under a legal cloud. He was National Sales Manager for

Mercury Energy Mercury NZ Limited is a New Zealand electricity generation and multi-product utility retailer of electricity, gas, broadband and mobile telephone services. All the company's electricity generation is Renewable energy, renewable. In August 2021 ...

, then Sales and Marketing Manager of Pulse Energy from 2009. He was general manager of the Newmarket Business Association from 2010 to 2014, then the CEO of the Property Institute of New Zealand from 2015. He is employed by NZME as a correspondent, is a commentator on energy and business issues, and has appeared on '' My House My Castle'', '' NZ Open Home'', '' ASB I Want to Buy a Home'' and TVNZ ''

Breakfast Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...

''. He is a director of the Israel Institute of NZ and has a business partnership with media expert

Rawdon Christie Rawdon Christie is a former English-New Zealand journalist turned media relations expert and real-estate sales person. Life Christie was born in London. He attended Marlborough College, and then the University of Edinburgh, where he received a ...

. He also provides consulting and management services to membership organisations, associations and business co-operatives. He was chairperson of the

New Zealand Taxpayers' Union The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is a self-described taxpayer pressure group founded in 2013 to scrutinise government spending, publicise government waste, and promote an efficient tax system. It claims to be politically independent and not align ...

for five months in 2021.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Church, Ashley 1964 births Living people People from Hastings, New Zealand People from Napier, New Zealand Napier City Councillors New Zealand National Party politicians Unsuccessful candidates in the 1987 New Zealand general election