Monday, 22 September 2014 10:30

Easy wins for Kuriger, Muller

Written by Sudesh Kissun

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Two prominent rural personalities easily won their parliamentary seats on National tickets Saturday night.

The inaugural Dairy Woman of the Year, Barbara Kuriger romped home in Taranaki-King Country; she polled 20,000 votes, 15,000 more than her nearest rival.

Former Fonterra executive Todd Muller breezed to victory in Bay of Plenty; he polled 20,000 votes and enjoyed a margin of 14,000 votes.

Kuriger will fill Shane Ardern's gumboots; Ardern retired after 16 years in politics.

In 2012 Kuriger was awarded the inaugural Dairy Women of the Year which came with a Fonterra scholarship to participate in the Global Women's breakthrough leadership program, from which she graduated in September 2013.

She also served as a board member for DairyNZ until her nomination.

Muller, 45 served as a general manager for Zespri; he resigned as group director cooperative affairs for Fonterra after his nomination.

He is a Waikato University councillor, and sits on the boards of Plant and Food Research and the Sustainable Business Council.

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