Fonterra Elections Results

Monday 20 May 2002

Fonterra's Shareholders' Council chairman John Wilson said today that Greg Gent, Jim van der Poel and Earl Rattray had been elected to the Fonterra Board of Directors in the company's first election of farmer directors.

"I would like to congratulate the successful candidates on behalf of the Shareholders' Council," Mr Wilson said. "All of the candidates put a significant amount of time and effort into the election process and I've personally thanked them for that. This work and the fact there were eight candidates meant it was a strong contest." One of the elected directors - Jim van der Poel - is new to the board. Greg Gent and Earl Rattray have been re-elected as directors.

The candidates and the stock exchange have been notified of the result and it is being mailed to all Fonterra suppliers. Mr van der Poel will be confirmed as a director when he has signed the confidentiality deed and indemnity required by the constitution and will take office from 1 June 2002.

Mr Wilson said 6690 shareholders (representing 56 percent of milksolids) voted in the election, which for the first time used the STV voting system. "The Shareholders' Council chose the STV system for this first Board election as we wanted a voting system that would fairly and effectively elect multiple candidates. After researching various voting systems we determined that STV was the most appropriate voting system for a nationwide election in which three candidates were to be elected. Under STV most shareholders' votes will have had a direct influence on the election of the successful candidates."

Fewer than 0.5 percent of ballots were invalid, which demonstrated farmers had few difficulties in adjusting to the new voting system, Mr Wilson said.

Fonterra chairman John Roadley said that Kevin Baxter had been elected to the Shareholders' Council in Ward 1 - Northern Northland, the only contested seat in the council elections. "In the eight other wards up for elections, we received only as many nominations as there were vacancies, so those candidates will be confirmed as Shareholders' Councillors after some formalities have taken place," Mr Roadley said.

Mr Roadley said that there were three new councillors this year. The new councillors will take office from 1 June. As with the Board of Directors, a third of the council is required to retire and face election each year. "As the first Shareholders' Council was elected only last year, it is pleasing to see that most shareholders want their existing councillors to continue to represent them. At the same time, it's encouraging that others want to become part of this body that has a key role in monitoring the Board and company's performance."

Under Fonterra's constitution, the Shareholders' Council is responsible for the Board of Directors elections and the Board is responsible for the Council elections. An independent elections project team working with the Joint Returning Officers ran the election processes. As this was the first election for the Board and the first election using the STV voting system, a review of the election process will now be conducted.

The membership of the Board of Directors as at 1 June 2002 is:

John Roadley (chairman)
Greg Gent (deputy chairman)
Harry Bayliss
Richard Booth
Murray Flett
Graeme Hawkins
John Hood
Marise James
Earl Rattray
Mark Townshend
Henry van der Heyden
Jim van der Poel.

The full Shareholders' Council as at 1 June 2002 is:

Ward District Seats Councillors
1 Northern Northland 1 Kevin Baxter
2 Central Northland 2 Murray Douglas Graeme Edwards
3 Southern Northland 2 Carl Gordon Allan McCracken
4 South Auckland 2 Neil Bateup Lachie Cameron
5 Hamilton 2 Neil McLean Don Seath
6 Te Awamutu 2 Allan Mockford Ray Shaw
7 Otorohanga 2 Robyn Clements Gordon McIvor
8 Rotorua 2 Allan Crafar Tony O'Boyle
9 Bay of Plenty 2 Catherine Bull Brian Power
10 South Waikato 2 Christina Baldwin George Moss
11 Matamata 2 David Gasquoine Tony Sclater
12 Te Aroha 2 Stephen Silcock Michael Spaans
13 Hauraki 2 John Bubb Conall Buchanan
14 Northern Taranaki 2 Blue Read Graham Robinson
15 Coastal Taranaki 2 Barbara Kuriger John Washer
16 Central Taranaki 2 Tom Mason Stephen O'Neill
17 South Taranaki 2 Roger Bent David Pearce
18 Manawatu 2 Malcolm Bailey Charlie Pedersen
19 Wairarapa 1 John Monaghan
20 Hawkes Bay 1 Robert Anderson
21 Tasman/Marlborough 1 Rod O'Beirne
22 Canterbury North 2 David Irvine David Turner
23 Canterbury South 2 Chris Bolderston Adri Verbakel
24 Otago/Northern Central Southland 2 Mike Elliot Phillip Wilson
25 South Central/Western Southland 2 Lloyd McCallum Philip van der Bijl

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