2013 Dairy Woman of the Year winner Justine Kidd will take the role at DWN's annual general meeting on October 22.
Current chair Michelle Wilson says it is a credit to the DWN board to have a person with Kidd's knowledge of agriculture and governance experience at the helm.
"As outgoing chair I take a lot of comfort in knowing that the organisation will continue to grow from strength to strength with strong leadership at the board table."
With the major prize for winning Dairy Woman of the Year being a place on the 12-month Global Women's Network's Breakthrough Programme, Kidd is nearly finished and will graduate in November.
Kidd says she is excited to be working with chief executive Zelda De Villiers and the team at the network.
"I'm really looking forward to the challenge and am thrilled to get my first chair opportunity with a chief executive like Zelda and an organisation that has a strong fit with my own leadership goals.
"The sense of responsibility to do a great job for the DWN will drive me. The network has come through a significant development stage under Michelle's leadership. It is poised to move into its next phase of growth and organisational development.
"I think Michelle has done such a fantastic job of leading DWN through some significant changes and challenges.
"My ambitions lie firmly in building positively on a fantastic foundation, working with the board to support the ability of DWN to sustainably deliver great outcomes for its members and the dairy industry year in and year out.
Kidd, who hails from Hawke's Bay, heads the BEL Group, a private dairy farm milking 9500 cows, is a shareholder in Dairy CHB which is now milking 1000 cows across two properties in its second year of operating and also owns JMK Consulting – a business leadership firm – as well as holding several directorships.
