Tuesday, 13 November 2018 12:55

McBride chuffed with response

Written by  Pam Tipa
Peter McBride. Peter McBride.

New Fonterra director Peter McBride says he is overwhelmed with the response in the election.

“I want farmers to know I will do my very best and I will work hard for them,” he told Dairy News.

“It was a good result. I was quite surprised at the outcome with only two people making it through but I guess that is the system.”

He says going into the election he was concerned the farmers may “just see me as a kiwifruit guy”. 

“But I think when they got to meet me in person and heard what I had to say then they understood I had something to offer”.

He says his first priority on the board will be to listen. “When you go onto boards you have got to be really careful just to take your time,” he says.

“My main plan is to try and get my head around the business. It is a very large complex business so my aim is to just to spend time with the senior executive and get as much insight into the business as I possibly can. And just contribute wherever I can.

“In the first six months you have got to do a lot of listening, not a lot of talking.”

McBride will step down as chairman of Zespri in February and retire as a Zespri director at the annual general meeting in July next year.

Asked if he would be ready for the Fonterra chairmanship if the directors wanted him to, he said it was too premature to even talk about it.

More like this

Aussie farmers get A$8.60/kgMS as opening milk price

Australian dairy farmers supplying Fonterra are getting an opening weighted average milk price of A$8.60/kgMS for the new season or around NZ$9.26/kgMS -  NZ74c less than New Zealand suppliers, based on the current exchange rate.

Featured

LIC Space folds for good

Farmer co-operative LIC has closed its satellite-backed pasture measurement platform – Space.

Editorial: Time for common sense

OPINION: The case of four Canterbury high country stations facing costly and complex consent hearing processes highlights the dilemma facing the farming sector as the country transitions into a replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA).

National

DairyNZ Farmers Forum underway

Over 300 farmers and rural professionals have gathered in Hamilton for the first DairyNZ Farmers Forum for this year.

Machinery & Products

Shearing legend hooked on CanAm

Sir David Fagan, world-renowned competitive sheep shearer with 642 shearing titles worldwide and a knighthood to his name, now runs…

50 years of tractor pull

This year, the Fieldays Tractor Pull, in association with PTS Logistics, mark a major milestone – 50 years of crowd-thrilling…

The Wrangler's birthday bash

It's the Wrangler Limited’s 30th birthday and to celebrate the milestone a prototype of the E Series Wrangler - a…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Free speech

OPINION: The Free Speech Union is taking this one too far.

Drug survey

OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter