LIC chairman Murray King said the board was delighted to welcome a directorof Dr Watters’ calibre.
“Alison has an honours degree in agricultural science and a PhD from Massey University and, with her husband Andrew, owns a 630 crossbred dairy herd in the Wairarapa.
“She was director of human nutrition at Massey University between 2002 and 2005 before joining Fonterra as technical manager in 2006 and has, over the past 18 years, been involved in several governance roles.”
Watters’ appointment was enabled by the retirement of longstanding LIC director, Bryan Guy, and she said she is “honoured to be representing the central region together with Taranaki based director, Steve Poole.
“I am passionate about the primary industry and especially dairy.
“I left Fonterra in 2011 with the aim of consolidating my directorship career and hoping to move from voluntary not-for-profit governance to full commercial governance. I was aware that there are many opportunities for commercial governance in NZ but I really wanted to apply for one that had a primary industry focus, and I was delighted when the LIC opportunity arose.
“I realise that boards in general are needing to move to better gender balance, but this wasn't my focus with my application to the LIC board; rather I wanted to have the opportunity to apply my scientific training together with my business/governance skills to ensure that LIC's strategic investment in R&D continues to be innovative whilst still delivering productivity and profitability on-farm, all within the context of keeping the cost of products and services to a minimum.”
Dr Watters’ appointment takes effect from June 1.
