John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand, in office since 2008. He has led the New Zealand National Party since 2006.

Born in Auckland before moving to Christchurch when he was a child, Key attended the University of Canterbury and graduated in 1981 with a bachelor of commerce, also later undertaking management studies at Harvard University in Boston. He began a career in the foreign exchange market in New Zealand before moving overseas to work for Merrill Lynch, in which he became head of global foreign exchange in 1995, a position he would hold for six years. In 1999 he was appointed a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York until leaving in 2001.

Key entered the New Zealand Parliament representing the Auckland electorate of Helensville as one of the few new National members of parliament in the election of 2002 following National's significant defeat of that year. He has held the seat since then. In 2004, he was appointed Finance Spokesman for National and eventually succeeded Don Brash as the National Party leader in 2006. After two years as Leader of the Opposition, Key led his party to victory in both the November 2008 and the November 2011 general elections.

Kim Dotcom, born Kim Schmitz on January 21, 1974, also known as Kimble and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, is a German-Finnish businessman who rose to prominence during the dot-com bubble and was convicted of insider trading and embezzlement in its aftermath. He is also known as the founder of Megaupload and its associated websites. He legally changed his surname to Dotcom circa 2005. On January 20, 2012, the New Zealand Police placed him in custody under the charges of criminal copyright infringement in relation to his Megaupload Web site.

As a teenager, Dotcom became known in his native Germany for claims to have cracked corporate PBX systems in the United States, and tried to parlay it into a career in data security. That effort led to his arrest on charges of using and selling stolen calling card numbers. In 1994, Dotcom founded a computer security company called DataProtect. In 1999, DataProtect and IVM engineering presented the "Megacar", a Brabus-tuned Mercedes-Benz S-Class W220 which, among other features, had a Windows NT server, a 17.3" SGI flat panel display and combined 16 GSM modules to provide mobile broadband Internet access.

Hone Pani Tamati Waka Nene Harawira is a New Zealand Māori activist and parliamentarian. He was elected to the Parliament of New Zealand for the Māori electorate of Te Tai Tokerau in the 2005 general election as the Māori Party candidate. His resignation caused the Te Tai Tokerau by-election, held on 25 June 2011, which he won with a majority of 1117. As Leader of the Mana Party and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau, he sits on the front bench in the New Zealand House of Representatives.

Harawira was born to John Puriri Harawira and Titewhai Harawira in Whangarei in 1955. He was raised in West Auckland and attended St Stephen's School, a boarding school for Māori boys, and the University of Auckland. He credits people like Muhammad Ali, Syd Jackson, Nelson Mandela, Maori Marsden, his mother and his wife for teaching him "the need for strength, commitment, wisdom and vision". His mother descends from the Ngāti Hau, Ngāti Wai and Ngāti Hine tribes, his father from Te Aupōuri, Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua, and he is part Pākehā. He married Hilda Halkyard from the Ngāti Haua hapū (subtribe) of Te Rarawa.

Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ (born 26 February 1950) was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand serving three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008, making her the fifth longest serving person to hold that office. She has been Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the third-highest UN position, since 2009.

Born in and raised just south of Hamilton, Clark graduated from the University of Auckland in 1974 and became political in her teenage years, involving herself in the New Zealand Labour Party from a young age. A junior lecturer at the University in the early 1970s, Clark entered local politics in 1974 in Auckland but was not elected to any position. Returning to lecturing at University after studying abroad, she successfully ran as a Member of Parliament for the Mount Albert electorate in 1981, a position she held until her resignation in 2009. During the 1980s and early 90s, Clark held numerous Cabinet positions in the Fourth Labour government, including Minister of Housing, Minister of Health and Minister of Conservation. She would hold the position of Deputy Prime Minister for a year.

Shane Keith Warne (born 13 September 1969) is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet and the only one still playing at the time. He is also a cricket commentator and a professional poker player.

Warne played his first Test match in 1992, and his 708 wickets was the record for the most wickets taken by any bowler in Test cricket, until it was broken by Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan on 3 December 2007. He took over 1000 international wickets (in Tests and One-Day Internationals)—he was the second bowler to reach this milestone after Muttiah Muralitharan. A useful lower-order batsman, Warne also scored over 3000 Test runs, and he holds the record for most Test runs without a century. His career was plagued by scandals off the field; these included a ban from cricket for testing positive for a prohibited substance, charges of bringing the game into disrepute by accepting money from bookmakers, and sexual indiscretions.