Ben Keneally is an Australian management consultant and politician. He was the Mayor of

Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...

from 2012 to 2016. His wife is the former

NSW Premier The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislatu ...

and former Senator

Kristina Keneally Kristina Marie Kerscher Keneally (born 19 December 1968) is an American-born Australian politician who was a Labor Senator for New South Wales from February 2018 until April 2022, when she resigned to unsuccessfully contest the House of Represe ...

Early life and career

Keneally grew up in

Gladesville Gladesville is a suburb in the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Gladesville is located 10 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Ryde a ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. Educated at Holy Cross College,

Ryde Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 23,999 according to the 2011 Census and an estimate of 24,847 in 2019. Its growth as a seaside resort came af ...

and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

. Keneally worked in the

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by rev ...

from 1994 to 2003, then as a management consultant for Medical Imaging Australia Limited (MIA). He then worked as executive director at

NSW Department of Housing Housing NSW, formerly the Housing Commission of New South Wales and before that the New South Wales Housing Board, was an agency of the Department of Communities and Justice that was responsible for the provision and management of public housing ...

, and then as Premier

Morris Iemma Morris Iemma (; born 21 July 1961) is a former Australian politician who was the 40th Premier of New South Wales. He served from 3 August 2005 to 5 September 2008. From Sydney, Iemma attended the University of Sydney and the University of Techno ...

's deputy chief of staff. He then worked for an environmental consultancy before entering politics. Keneally was originally planning to challenge Deirdre Grusovin for Labor preselection in the state seat of Heffron in 2003. However, Labor's affirmative action rules required a female candidate, so he stood down in favour of his wife Kristina. Keneally was the Labor candidate for

City of Botany Bay The City of Botany Bay was a Local government in Australia, local government area in the eastern region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The area encompassed the suburbs to the north of Botany Bay, such as Botany, New South ...

's mayoral election during the 2012 local government elections, and was elected as Mayor. Later while he was Mayor, Keneally also began to work as a chief executive of a health care company. In December 2015, he delegated his mayoral duties to deputy mayor Stan Kondilio due to his increased workload at the health care company. He officially continued as Mayor until the council was dissolved and amalgamated to form

Bayside Council Bayside Council is a local government in New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Sydney, around part of Botany Bay, to south of the CBD. It includes suburbs of South Sydney and the St George area separated by the Cooks River. It compris ...

in September 2016. In January 2017, Keneally returned to the Boston Consulting Group to be a managing director and partner at its Sydney office. He still holds these positions . Keneally is the Asia-Pacific Healthcare lead for BCG.

Personal life

Keneally met his future wife Kristina at

World Youth Day World Youth Day (WYD) is an event for young people organized by the Catholic Church that was initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1985, sometimes nicknamed in later years as the "Catholic Woodstock". Its concept has been influenced by the Light-Li ...

1991 in Poland. She moved to Australia in 1994 to be with him, but they returned to the US so Ben could take up a position with the Boston Consulting Group. They married there in 1996. They returned to Australia two years later, after their son was born. The couple has two sons. A daughter died at birth. Keneally is the nephew of Australian author

Thomas Keneally Thomas Michael Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and actor. He is best known for his non-fiction novel ''Schindler's Ark'', the story of Oskar Schindler's rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, wh ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keneally, Ben Australian Labor Party mayors Mayors of Botany and Botany Bay Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Public servants of New South Wales