Early life and career

Neilson's father was born in Auckland, but raised in England. Neilson was born on 12 July 1954 in Birmingham, England, and moved to New Zealand in 1958 with his family. He was educated at Glendowie College and University of Auckland, where he graduated with a bachelor of commerce in 1977. He had one son and one daughter with his wife Megan Clark.^[1]

He became an economist and later a senior research officer at the Department of Labour.^[2]

Political career

Neilson joined the Labour Party in 1972 and stood for the Auckland Regional Authority in the 1974 local elections on a Labour ticket alongside future parliamentary colleagues Helen Clark and Richard Northey. He stood in the Auckland city ward but was unsuccessful.^[3] He was later Labour's campaign chairman at the 1977 local elections, chair of the Tamaki electorate committee, Secretary of Labour's Youth Council and Treasurer of the Wellington Labour Local Body Committee.^[4]

Later life and death

After exiting parliament Neilson began a career as a business consultant. He undertook several overseas commissions for Ernst & Young before leaving to become Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Business Network.^[11]

From 2011 until 2016 he was chief executive of the New Zealand Financial Services Council.^[12] He was Chairperson of the Simplicity Charitable Trust, which manages a KiwiSaver scheme in New Zealand.^[13] He was also a board member for the National Foundation for Deaf & Hard of Hearing.^[14]

Neilson made a return to politics and was a Labour Party candidate in the Manurewa-Papakura ward for the Auckland Council at the 2019 Auckland local elections.^[15] He was unsuccessful.

He died on 9 February 2022, at the age of 67.^[16]