--- description: Theresa May is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Bill English wrote about the Prime Minister of Britain. title: Theresa May by Bill English: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd52b737e3161310e/6988c3447cdbac1abfd57f21/time-100-2017-theresa-may.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 19, 2017 # Theresa May by Bill English  Photograph by Simon Dawson—Bloomberg/Getty Images For almost 250 years the fortunes of New Zealand have often been tied to the U.K., through settlement, war and trade. So I was intrigued to meet Prime Minister Theresa May in January, only months after Britain voted to leave the E.U. and she took office. I learned quickly why she emerged from the Brexit after­math as leader: she has will and she has clarity. In charting the U.K.’s renewed relationship with Europe and the rest of the world, she has met the deepest demand of leadership: to provide direction and reassurance in a time of upheaval and confusion. She is the right person to guide the democratic will of Britain through the complexity of separating the U.K. from the European Union. And in the midst of this highly charged process she can talk with warmth about her concerns for the disenfranchised and disadvantaged, and listen and learn. With gracious determination but without ego, this is remaking a nation. From the other end of the world, it looks like she will succeed. _English is the Prime Minister of New Zealand_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736344/theresa-may/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736344/theresa-may/"},"headline":"Theresa May","datePublished":"2017-04-19T21:40:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:25.259Z","description":"Theresa May is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Bill English wrote about the Prime Minister of Britain.","url":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736344/theresa-may/","keywords":["TIME 100"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd52b737e3161310e/6988c3447cdbac1abfd57f21/time-100-2017-theresa-may.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd52b737e3161310e/6988c3447cdbac1abfd57f21/time-100-2017-theresa-may.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736344/theresa-may/","name":"Theresa May"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See All the TIME 100 Honorees in One Minute","description":"The TIME 100 honorees include actors, musicians, politicians, business leaders, activists and scientists, and together make a portrait of influence in 2017.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zZCdrcRA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-04-20T10:30:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zZCdrcRA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736344/theresa-may/","duration":"PT56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736344/theresa-may/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```