Susan O'Regan

Susan Catherine O'Regan (born 1972) is a New Zealand politician who served as the mayor of Waipa from 2022 to 2025.

Early life O'Regan was born and raised in Rukuhia. Her mother was Katherine O'Regan, a National MP who represented . She boarded at Waikato Diocesan School in Hamilton being admitted to the bar in 1996. Their farm, Judge Valley Dairies, has won multiple awards at the Waikato Farm Environment Awards.

Political career O'Regan was asked to run for the Taranaki-King Country electorate in the after Shane Ardern announced his retirement, but she turned it down after becoming pregnant. In 2016, she was elected to the Kakepuku ward of the Waipa District Council. She was re-elected unopposed in 2019 and chaired the council's Strategic Planning and Policy Committee.

In April 2022, O'Regan announced that despite speculation that she would run for mayor like her mother had in 1995, she was retiring from politics to work for DairyNZ. She also ruled out contesting the parliamentary by-election for Tauranga, an electorate her mother had unsuccessfully run for twice after her own Waipa seat was abolished. However, in June she changed her mind, staking her political career on an "all or nothing" campaign for mayor. In October, she defeated the incumbent Jim Mylchreest, becoming the first female mayor of the district and the first to oust an incumbent.

In 2025 O'Regan became the second incumbent mayor to be ousted, being defeated by Mike Pettit.