Newly-elected director ready to help co-op perform better

Watters, who took up her board seat at Fonterra's annual meeting this month, says she's humbled to be chosen by farmer shareholders.

Watters replaces Edgecumbe farmer Donna Smit who retired after serving for six years.

Watters is a co-owner of a 510-cow dairy farm in the Wairarapa. Watters and her husband Andrew won the NZ Sharemilker of the Year title in 2003.

She currently serves as a director of LIC and MetService. Last month she stepped down as chair of AsureQuality.

Watters says she appreciates the confidence shareholders have shown in her ability as a governor.

"And, I am fully committed to living up to that responsibility," she told Dairy News. "In addition to a broad range of governance experiences, I will bring good insights around innovation to the Fonterra board table.

"My background in R&D, and in commercialisation of innovations in not only dairy nutrition but also other areas of significance to the dairy industry, will help to enrich both discussions and decision making.

"I am excited about working with both my fellow board directors and the Fonterra management team to extract the best performance from the co-operative."

Watters acknowledges that Fonterra faces significant challenges ahead, with a constrained milk pool, a tightening global financial market which will pressure on demand, and a need to focus on driving performance through both the milk price and adding value across Fonterra's product range.

She adds that the current strategy supports this focus.

Dairy farmers are also facing more challenges around the way they farm.

She says farmers are being increasingly challenged to meet requirements around both environmental and financial sustainability.

"The opportunity lies in being able to extract value from being part of an industry which is known to have the lowest environmental footprint in the world with regard to dairy production."