Derek Leask
New Zealand diplomat (1948–2025)
Derek William Leask (1948 – 15 November 2025) was a New Zealand diplomat and cartobibliographer. From March 2008 to February 2013, he was the High Commissioner from New Zealand to the United Kingdom, and concurrently accredited as Ambassador to Ireland and High Commissioner to Nigeria. Leask was a career diplomat, who joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1969. Before becoming Commissioner, he was Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Wellington. He served as Ambassador to the European Union in Brussels from 1994 to 1999, and was earlier posted to Suva, Ottawa and London, between 1985 and 1989.
Early life and education
Leask was born in Wellington in 1948, and earned degrees from Victoria University of Wellington (BCA), and the University of Canterbury (MComm, Hons-Economics).
High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters announced Leask would be the next High Commissioner in London on 22 November 2007, succeeding Jonathan Hunt. As High Commissioner, Leask attended the service for Edmund Hillary at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle on 2 April 2008.
Inquiry and vindication
Starting in 2012, Leask was connected to the leaking of documents from Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. An inquiry led by Paula Rebstock was later found to be "flawed" in its dealings with Leask by an Ombudsman's report by Ron Paterson, which recommended Leask be paid legal costs and compensation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5262137. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1948, 2025, 2008 and 2013.
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This entry incorporates text from “Derek Leask” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.