Wellington’s tres chic Jack Yan has irrepressible humour, a dedication to hard work and a world class magazine, Lucire, already to his credit.  Add to that a great sense of style and charming French and he is more than capable of sustaining anything from board negotiations to champagne cocktails.

Jack has a yearning to become our next mayor and lead Wellington into a creative and technologically astute future.  What do we know of Jack?  Let’s find out more about the man set to spice up the mayoral race.

Five mins with Jack Yan

1.    Jack, where were you born and what was a memorable childhood memory?
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong. I have one of those freaky memories that goes back to when I was around nine months old, but there was an awesome fair at Mum’s work when I was around three that proved to be a wonderful day out. The fire department were lifting kids up in the Simon Snorkel engine. On the same day, I also saw the first Fiat X1/9 in the city, at the local showroom. Somehow, Dad found a Corgi scale model of the same car by that evening. (I asked him last year how he managed that feat, but he doesn’t remember.) He also found a toy ERF fire engine on the same day, but that Fiat was the business.

2.    Did you have a teacher who influenced you?
They all did, though Mrs Myra Graham, my Standard Two teacher at St Mark’s Church School, probably stood out, cooking us up Greek food when we were studying Greece and giving me a Hertz rental car brochure from her family’s time in the US. Doesn’t take much to please kids.

3.    What was your first job?
I was a calligrapher working for myself during my high school days. Calligraphy turned in to typeface design, which branched out to other things, including brand consulting and publishing.

4.    You are keen on languages, how many do you speak?
Cantonese, Taishanese, English, French, and a tiny bit of Swedish. Probably like a lot of Kiwis, I can understand Italian when I am in Italy but cannot speak it. I usually say three and a bit. Cantonese and Taishanese are so closely related that I doubt they count as two, especially when you work out that the t sound in the former is an h in the latter, etc.

5.    What is your current business?
I run Jack Yan & Associates, which includes Lucire, the fashion magazine, and a successful font software business. We also consult on brands. I sit on the board at the Medinge Group, a think-tank specializing in humanistic branding, and we give out the Brands with a Conscience Awards annually. I sometimes write books and articles.

6.    How does your business acumen translate into mayoral potential?
In all my businesses, I have had to be years ahead of mainstream thought (who else was harping on about the internet’s possibilities for publishing in 1993, or the need to make the green movement more fashionable in 2003?) and I can see what’s next for Wellington. I don’t look in rear-view mirrors, which seems to be what some of my opponents are doing.  I’ve made the contacts that Wellington needs to get itself in to the 2010s, and have travelled enough to realize how far we’ve dropped behind technologically during the last decade. Most of the time I have succeeded in my work. If I say Wellington can be the most creative place on the planet and be envied as a world-class city, then I’ll do what it takes to get us there, and I’ll do it responsibly. And I’ve more than a few things already under way to realize that.

7.    Where is your favourite place in Wellington and why?
There’s no single favourite for me. Watching Evans Bay from my office. Walking around Newtown, where I once lived. Sitting around with my friends on Oriental Bay. Wontons at Johnsonville Mall. Dining out on Featherston Street. It all depends on company and what I’m after. I am convinced, and this is not a politician’s answer, that this is the finest city in the world to live in, so I avail myself of everything it offers.

8.    Imagine unlimited funds, what would you create in the city?
Hypothetically, a free energy programme for Wellington. The power companies might hate me for that, but we spend enough each month on our bills. So let’s get alternatives up and running for every home. Let’s use those funds to generate new businesses to we can all have jobs. Free internet for everyone. How about a sustainable space-port so Sir Richard Branson has somewhere to land his spaceships? (Hey, you did say unlimited.) Subsidize every school in the city so they can have everything they need to teach our kids.

9.    Being Chinese, an advantage, a disadvantage or not relevant in the mayoral race?
I don’t think it’s relevant. I’ll admit that my family values play a huge part in who I am, but good Chinese family values are, surprise, surprise, identical at the core to good Maori and Pacific family values, or good south Asian family values, or good occidental family values.

10.    What was the last concert you went to in the city?
A very good friend of mine runs Avidiva, which is a girl group, so it would have been them last year at the Town Hall.

11.    Who is a Wellingtonian you greatly admire and why?
Former mayor Sir Frank Kitts, though he was born in Waimate, was an old family friend, who really helped us settle in to Wellington and sorted out my Mum’s pay at Wellington Hospital when there were some irregularities. He showed that public service was fulfilling and sometimes, you need the top bloke to nudge things in the right direction. In terms of Wellingtonians who were born here, Lady Weinberg (a.k.a. Anouska Hempel) would rate very highly in my book for her sense of design (ever stay at a Blake’s hotel?), her style and entrepreneurship, even though these days she lives overseas.

12.    What is your favourite food when eating with the family?
Won ton soup. I remember when my mother and maternal grandmother were alive, we would make enough for the family. Perhaps as a sign of how Chinese immigrants integrate, they would be mixed with Maggi chicken noodle soup. Even when I get the ready-made won tons, since I don’t have time to wrap them individually these days, they take me right back.

13.    Describe Jack Yan in five years from now.
I don’t like counting chickens but hopefully serving as this city’s duly elected mayor in my second term, after having done a bloody good job in my first. I’ll see that Wellington has had massive job growth and a cemented reputation as the most creative city in the world.