John Key Elected New Zealand Prime Minister

America has no monopoly on fast-rising political leaders. Six years ago, John Key quit a career in foreign exchange trading that had made him a millionaire to enter the New Zealand parliament.

Today, the 47-year-old is his country's prime minister-elect, following the victory of his center-right National Party over Prime Minister Helen Clark's Labour Party in New Zealand's general election on Nov. 8.

Key assumed leadership of the party following its narrow loss in the 2005 general election. He sufficiently moved it toward the center and broadened its appeal to blue-collar workers so that critics dubbed it Labour-lite. A pragmatic rather than doctrinaire conservative, Key worked for Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER - news - people ) from 1995, first as its head of Asian foreign exchange in Singapore, then as head of global foreign exchange in London.

He returned to New Zealand in 2001. He campaigned on the strength of his financial background in an election dominated by economic issues. New Zealand's economy has entered a mild recession as growth slows across the Asia-Pacific region in the wake of the global financial crisis. That ended a boom that had started in 2000 and kept Clark's Labour party in office for nine years.

The economy faces a difficult year ahead, but Key's election is unlikely to see any dramatic policy shifts in either domestic or foreign policy--even though he told his supporters that the country had--what else these days?--"voted for change."