Friday, March 29, 2024

Fonterra changes vindicated

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The calibre of new directors and nominees for the Fonterra board vindicates the governance changes and the downsizing of the board and outweighs the initial loss of experience, departing director Nicola Shadbolt says.
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Her decision not to seek a fourth three-year term is in accordance with the guideline of nine years as the optimum and 12 years as the maximum.

The three candidates for vacancies around the board table announced last Monday are one-term sitting director Ashley Waugh along with Jamie Tuuta and Peter McBride.

Shadbolt acknowledged that after this year’s election four of the seven farmer-directors will be newcomers.

“It goes further, in that only two of the 11 (chairman John Monaghan and independent Simon Israel) have more than three years’ experience,” she said.

“These are the effects of the 2015 governance review, application of the skills matrix and the independent selection panel.

“I am confident we are getting the right people and diversity and I am delighted with the new nominees.”

For example, last year’s elected director Andy Macfarlane came with a breadth of governance roles and chairmanship experience.

McBride and Tuuta have similar, strong backgrounds, Shadbolt said.

The changes to the director election process were made to encourage very able and experienced governors in the Fonterra shareholder base to step up.

Shadbolt, therefore, has confidence the co-operative will be in good hands.

She has other governance roles, including chairing the Hopkins Farming Group, with 10 dairy farms in Manawatu, where she lives.

Waugh, Tuuta and McBride were selected by the independent panel chaired by Dame Alison Paterson, from shareholders who put their names forward in confidence.

They were then confirmed as nominees by the board.

A second self-nomination route is now open until September 20 for intending candidates with the support of 35 different shareholders.

All candidates must then get 50% approval from shareholders who vote in the run-up to the annual meeting to be held at the Lichfield processing site, South Waikato, on Thursday, November 8.

That will also contain farewell tributes to retiring former chairman John Wilson and to Shadbolt.

Voting packs including candidate profiles will be mailed to shareholders on October 15 and voting closes on November 6.

McBride has been chairman of Zespri for five years and is chief executive of the large dairy farming and kiwifruit growing charitable trust called Trinity Lands, in Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

Tuuta is the Maori Trustee and chief executive of Te Tumu Paeroa and a former chairman of the Parininihi ki Waitotara Incorporation, a large Taranaki dairy farming group.

He also chairs Maori Television and is a board member of Moana New Zealand, Maori fisheries.

Waugh is a dairy farmer near Te Awamutu, chairman of Moa Brewing Company and has two decades of dairy marketing experience with the NZ Dairy Board and National Foods of Australia.

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