Jamie Whyte

Jamie Whyte
Jamie Whyte on the day of the announcement of his selection as Leader by ACT
Leader of ACT New Zealand
In office 2014–2014
Preceded by	John Banks
Succeeded by	David Seymour
Deputy	vacant
Personal details
Born	Auckland, New Zealand
Political party	ACT New Zealand
Children	2
Alma mater	University of Auckland, Cambridge University
Occupation	Philosopher, management consultant
Website	ACT Party profile

Dr Jamie Whyte is a New Zealand politician who is a former leader of ACT New Zealand, a free market political party of New Zealand, and unsuccessfully contested the Pakuranga electorate in the 2014 general election. At the election, Whyte held the first position on the party list, but Act did not achieve enough party votes to secure any list seats. Soon after the 2014 general election, he resigned from the leadership of ACT.

Whyte is a former philosophy lecturer, currency trader and management consultant. He has written books and newspaper columns about reasoning and politics.

Whyte was born in Auckland, New Zealand. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Auckland. He then moved to the UK to study for an M.Phil and Ph.D at St John's College, Cambridge.

Upon graduation, Whyte remained at Cambridge University for three years as a research fellow at Corpus Christi College and temporarily lectured in the Philosophy faculty. He won the Analysis journal prize for the best article by a philosopher under the age of 30.

Whyte then took up a job with the New York-based management consultancy firm Oliver Wyman. He also worked as a foreign currency trader.

Since 2004, Whyte has written books for general audiences and newspaper columns, aiming to expose shoddy reasoning, especially by politicians. In 2006 he won the Reason Foundation Bastiat Prize for journalism (jointly with Tim Harford of the Financial Times) and in 2010 he was named runner up. In June 2014, Whyte won the Institute of Economic Affairs Arthur Seldon Memorial Award for Excellence for Quack Policy.

He is the author of Crimes Against Logic (titled Bad Thoughts: A Guide to Clear Thinking in the UK; 2004), A Load of Blair (2005), Free Thoughts (2012) and Quack Policy (2013) and has also written columns for many notable publications, including The Times, City A.M., Standpoint, Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.