Peter Byard Davis (born 25 April 1947) is a New Zealand sociologist, professor, and the husband of

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 ...

, who was the

Prime Minister of New Zealand The prime minister of New Zealand ( mi, Te pirimia o Aotearoa) is the head of government of New Zealand. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, took office on 26 October 2017. The prime minister (inform ...

from 1999 to 2008.

Early life

Davis was born in

Milford on Sea Milford on Sea, often hyphenated, is a large village or small town and a civil parish on the Hampshire coast. The parish had a population of 4,660 at the 2011 census and is centred about south of Lymington. Tourism and businesses for quite pr ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, England, on 25 April 1947, and spent his childhood in

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

, where his father worked for a mining company. His father was born in China and his mother in India, but a great-great-grandfather had grown up in New Zealand. Davis gained a master's degree in sociology and statistics at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

. He moved to New Zealand in 1970 to work at the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...

and completed a PhD at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

. He became a naturalised New Zealander in 1972. He was part of a team investigating oral health in New Zealand and was joint editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology. In 1976 he was appointed a lecturer at the

school of medicine. In

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

he stood unsuccessfully for the

Auckland City Council Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1871 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elected b ...

on a Labour Party ticket.

Personal life

Davis met Clark, then a political-science lecturer at Auckland, in 1977 and they married in 1981.

Career

Davis specialises in

medical sociology Medical sociology is the sociological analysis of medical organizations and institutions; the production of knowledge and selection of methods, the actions and interactions of healthcare professionals, and the social or cultural (rather than clin ...

, and from 2004 to 2017 worked as the Director of the COMPASS (Centre of Methods and Policy Application in the Social Sciences) Research Centre at the University of Auckland. He is now Professor Emeritus in the School of Population Health and Honorary Professor in the Department of Statistics at the

. Previously he served as Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago's Christchurch School of Medicine. He has previously served on the Auckland Area Health Board, and was a representative in 1989 when his wife (Health Minister at the time) suspended that body. Davis has achieved international recognition in his field, having worked as a consultant for the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

. In 2019 Davis became a

City Vision City Vision is a centre-left coalition of two political parties, the New Zealand Labour Party and the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, and community independents who contest Auckland Council (and previously Auckland City and Auckland Regi ...

candidate for the

Auckland District Health Board Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) was a district health board that provided healthcare in the Auckland Region in New Zealand, mainly on the Auckland isthmus. This district health board existed between 2001 and 2022 and was governed by a part- ...

and was subsequently elected. He is Chair of

The Helen Clark Foundation The Helen Clark Foundation ( mi, Mahi a Rongo) is an Aotearoa New Zealand-based independent, non-partisan public policy think tank hosted by Auckland University of Technology. Formation The foundation was formed in 2019 and is named after Helen ...

board.

Notes

References

University of Auckland
press release * Wayne Thompson
"PM's spouse eases long-distance stress"
in ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

'', Friday 6 February 2004
University of Auckland profile

of the University of Auckland {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Peter 1947 births Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of the University of Southampton English emigrants to New Zealand Helen Clark Living people Medical sociologists Naturalised citizens of New Zealand People from Milford on Sea Sociology educators Spouses of prime ministers of New Zealand University of Auckland alumni Academic staff of the University of Auckland Academic staff of the University of Otago Auckland District Health Board members