Prime Minister John Key says the Queen has approved the appointment of Dame Patsy Reddy as the next Governor-General of New Zealand.

Dame Patsy will be appointed for a five-year term starting on 14 September 2016. She succeeds Sir Jerry Mateparae who will complete his term on 31 August 2016.

A former lawyer, Dame Patsy graduated with an LLB from  Victoria University of Wellington in 1976 and an LLM (Hons) in 1979. She then joined the Victoria law faculty as a junior lecturer and then as a lecturer.

Joining the law firm Watts and Patterson (now Minter Ellison Rudd Watts) in 1982, she became the first female partner in 1983. She specialised in tax, corporate and film law.

Dame Patsy joined  Brierley Investments Ltd in 1987 as Group Legal Counsel, later becoming Group Manager for Special Projects. She left in 1999 when she was a co-founder of Active Equities Ltd, a private investment company.

She became a Dame Commander of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2014 for services to the arts and business. Dame Patsy is married to Sir David Gascoigne.