Lee Vandervis

Lee Vandervis
Personal details
Born	c. 1957 Balclutha, New Zealand
Nationality	New Zealand
Occupation	Businessman, politician
Known for	Dunedin mayoral candidate Opponent of Forsyth Barr Stadium
Website	Official website

Lee Vandervis (born 1957) is a local-body politician who was first elected to the Dunedin City Council in the 2004 local elections. Vandervis has run for mayor in 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013, finishing second in 2007. He is currently an elected councillor.

Lee Vandervis was born in Balclutha in 1957. He is the second son of Dutch immigrant parents, who settled in New Zealand after the Second World War. He attended Rosebank School (where he was dux), South Otago High School, and Kaikorai Valley High School. Vandervis later acquired a BA in Philosophy from the University of Otago, and has worked as a music technician for many years. In the mid 1970s he went to the United Kingdom and worked as an acoustic engineer for Midas Audio. In 1981, Vandervis returned to Dunedin and set up Vandervision Lighting Audio and Video in the early 1980s.

According to a human interest story by the Otago Daily Times journalist Kim Dungey, Lee Vandervis was teased at school because of his Dutch name "Lieuwe", which he later changed to "Lee" by deed poll. Vandervis is married to Antonie Vandervis, who teaches languages and culture at the University of Otago. He has eight children with the youngest being severely autistic. He is also an avid listener of classical music and names Johann Sebastian Bach and Jethro Tull as some of his favourite composers. Vandervis also plays the piano, violin, and cello, and was a member of the Dunedin band Prometheus. Vandervis is also a fan of the American author Neal Stephenson's speculative fiction novel Cryptonomicon.

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