pn811. Samoan New Zealander next head of AUT, NZ's premior technical university

 

Doctor and Associate Professor Toeosulusalu (his Samon title) Damon Ieremia Salesa will become AUT's next Vice-Chancellor when the current vice-chancellor, Derek McCormack, retires in March next year.  Click here. 

This is a most deserved appointment for a most remarkable man.

Born in Auckland, the son of an immigrant Samoan labourer and a Northland nurse, Damon has a BA and Master's degree with 1st class honours from Auckland University. 

He was the first Pacific  Islander to win a Rhodes' Scholarship and has a D.Litt. from Oxford.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of NZ.

He is currently Pro-Vice-Chancellor Pacific at the University of Auckland and was the founding director of the NZ Institute for Pacific Research and the Director of Pacific Strategy and Engagement as well as Head of Pacific Studies. Prior to his Auckland appointment, he worked at the University of Michigan for 10 years.   

 He is married, with two teenage daughters, to Labour Minister the Hon. Jenny Salesa, née Latu, who was born in Tonga.

Damon is a prizewinning scholar who specializes in the study of colonialism, empire, government, race, and inter-marriages.  With a particular interest in the Pacific Islands, he also works on education, economics and development in the Pacific region, as well as in New Zealand and Australia. 

Congratulations, Damon.

--ACW

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