Independently Assessed Candidates For Fonterra Board Of Directors’ Election Announced

Incumbent Directors Peter McBride, John Nicholls and Leonie Guiney have been announced as the Independently Assessed Candidates for the 2021 Fonterra Directors’ election. This year there are three Board positions up for election.

The three incumbent Directors are seeking re-election and chose to participate in the Independent Assessment Process. The Panel’s assessment of Peter, John and Leonie will be included in the voting pack and as re-standing Directors they automatically go through to the ballot. No other candidates put themselves forward for the Independent Assessment Process.

Independently Assessed Candidates

Full candidate statements and biographies will be included in the voting pack. A short introduction from each candidate is provided below.

Peter McBride

Peter McBride is a highly respected, longstanding leader and current Chair of the Fonterra Board. He also has a high-profile in the kiwifruit industry, having been elected to the Zespri board at the age of 38 and serving as Chair for six years until 2019. He has significant commercial, global experience and an intuitive understanding of trade and customer relationships in the primary sector. Peter also has a deep connection to the land and dairy farming, having been raised on a dairy farm in Waikato and continues his dairy interests to the present day. Following university, he spent four years managing properties in the horticulture sector before switching to dairy and assuming contract milking and 50/50 share milking roles in the South Waikato for 9 years. He is now Chief Executive of the large-scale dairying and kiwifruit business, Trinity Lands, which is mostly based in the same region. It produces 7 million kgs of milk solids per year from 15,000 cows on 21 dairy farms, alongside 180 hectares of kiwifruit. He and his wife Linda have a farm in Tokoroa, where they farm 1,000 cows on 330 hectares of land. He is passionate about the Co-operative model and believes he has the credibility, energy and commitment to make a significant contribution to New Zealand agribusiness and to Fonterra.

John Nicholls

John Nicholls is a dairy farmer of over 25 years in the South Wairarapa and Mid-Canterbury and the force, with his family, behind Rylib Group. For the past three years he has served as a Fonterra shareholder director, and he is a current member of the Co-operative Relations Committee, Safety and Risk Committee, Disclosure Committee, and the Capital Structure Committee. Previously he served on the Fonterra Co-operative Council. Outside of the co-operative, John has led MHV Water, New Zealand’s largest intergenerational irrigation co-operative, as Board Chair for seven years through a period of significant change. He is involved as a governor and advisor to various other local entities. John is mentoring the next generation of farmers, including his own son. John graduated from Massey University in 1990 with a degree in Agriculture and a postgraduate diploma in Agricultural Science. The Nicholls family business, the Rylib Group, currently employs 35 staff, milking more than 5,000 cows and producing 2.5 million kgs of milk solids. The Group’s mission is based on family values and a commitment to people and culture, service to the wider community, environmental excellence and profitable growth.

Leonie Guiney

Leonie Guiney is a shareholder of multiple farming companies, including a commercial property company and a trust. The business supplies 1.4 million kgs of milk solids to Fonterra from dairy farms in South Canterbury. She has served twice on the Fonterra Board – for three years between 2014 and 2017, before returning as an elected ‘non-assessed’ candidate in 2018. She is currently the Chair of the Board’s Safety and Risk Committee and also serves on the Divestment Review Committee, Co-operative Relations Committee and Capital Structure Committee. Leonie is a former self-employed farm business consultant in New Zealand and Ireland and has written extensively on industry issues as a correspondent for international publications. Returning to NZ in 2000, she lectured in Dairy Production at Lincoln University, joined FarmRight consultancy and contracted to BNZ on strategic planning and wealth creation for farmers. She has a degree in Agricultural Science from Massey University. With her husband Kieran, the couple embarked on two large sharemilking jobs following a period of contract milking and then made their first farm purchase in 2005, winning Canterbury Sharemilker of the Year 12 months later. The family continued to buy and convert farms and won the Low Input Dairy Business of the Year award in 2014. Their own sharemilkers are now award winners.

Nominations Process

There are two different ways that shareholders can stand for the Board – as Independently Assessed Candidates or as Non-Assessed Candidates.

Nominations for Non-Assessed Candidates, where farmers can stand as a candidate for the Board with the support of 35 different shareholders, are now open. Nominations close at 12 noon on Thursday, 28 October 2021.

The full list of candidates for the Fonterra Board of Directors’ Election, being the Independently Assessed Candidates and any Non-Assessed Candidates will be announced on Friday, 29 October 2021.

Independent Selection Panel

The three-member Panel is comprised of Tony Carter (Chair of My Food Bag, TR Group and Datacom Group), Joan Withers (Chair of The Warehouse Group) and Rob Campbell (Chair of Skycity Entertainment Group, Tourism Holdings, NZ Rural Land, Ara Ake and WEL Networks). The Panel has a key role in the Fonterra Directors’ Election process as it provides the Co-operative’s shareholders with an independent assessment of Elected Director candidates who elect to go through the Independent Assessment Process.

Voting Period, Voting Methods and Notification of Election Results

Voting Packs, containing candidate profiles, will be mailed to eligible shareholders in November. Shareholders can vote by internet or post, using the First Past the Post voting system. Voting closes at 10.30am on Tuesday, 7 December 2021 with the results being announced later that day.

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