Ian S. Ardern

Ian Sidney Ardern (born 28 February 1954) is a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). A resident native of New Zealand at the time of his call in 2011, he is the second general authority from New Zealand in the church's history, after Douglas J. Martin.
Ardern joined the LDS Church at age 8 after missionaries taught his family. His parents, Harry and Gwladys Ardern, did not join the church until after he and some of his siblings did. He attended the LDS Church-owned high school, Church College of New Zealand (CCNZ), where he first met his wife, Paula Judd. After serving a mission in the France Belgium Mission from 1973 to 1975, he and Paula married in the New Zealand Temple on 17 January 1976. They are the parents of four children.
Ardern received both and degrees in education from the University of Waikato in New Zealand. In 1981, he joined the Church Educational System (CES) as an English teacher and was later principal of CCNZ. In 2004, he became the area director for CES in the Pacific. Ardern has served in the LDS Church as a stake Young Men president, bishop, high councilor, and counselor in a stake presidency. After serving as president of the Fiji Suva Mission from 2005 to 2008, Ardern returned to CES employment in New Zealand as an institute director and seminary coordinator in Hamilton.
Ardern was appointed an area seventy in the Eighth Quorum of Seventy on 3 April 2010. He was then appointed to the First Quorum of the Seventy on 2 April 2011. From 2011 to 2014, he served as second counselor in the presidency of the church's Philippines Area, and served as the area's president from 2014 to 2017. He has served as a counselor in the presidency of the church's Pacific Area since August 2017. In October 2011, Ardern became the first general authority from New Zealand to speak in the LDS Church's general conference in 24 years.
He is the twin brother of New Zealand's High Commissioner to Niue Ross Ardern and the uncle of New Zealand's current Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern.

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