Roger France Joins Fonterra Board

Roger France Joins Fonterra Board

Roger France, one of New Zealand’s most highly regarded corporate advisors, will join the Board of Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd, effective 1 January, 2003.

Fonterra Chairman Henry van der Heyden has welcomed Mr France’s appointment.

“I’m delighted Roger will be joining us. He has a great deal of experience in the corporate sector, as a financial advisor and leader, and commands a high level of respect among his peers. His expertise in audit management will be of particular value to the Board as it looks to build on successes the company has already achieved.”

A chartered accountant, born and educated in Christchurch but resident in Auckland for the past 28 years, Mr France’s recent career has been focused on corporate finance advisory work in a wide range of industries, in particular the transport and distribution, rural servicing and electricity sectors.

Mr France becomes the fourth independent director on the 13-strong Board.

Mr France began his career with a PricewaterhouseCoopers firm in 1964, holding audit supervisory and management positions in Sydney and London between 1970 and 1974.

From 1976 to 1981 he was financial controller with publicly listed Allied Farmers Co-operative Ltd, and from 1982 to 1984 he was chief financial officer with another publicly listed company, Freightways Holdings Ltd.

In 1985 Mr France returned to what was then Coopers & Lybrand as a partner in the corporate finance division. He served as the managing partner in Auckland, sat on its governance board, and led PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Corporate Value Consulting practice in Asia Pacific for three years before retiring from the firm last year.

He joined Air New Zealand’s board in October last year, acting as executive director until February of this year and is now the airline’s deputy chairman and chairman of its audit committee.

Mr France has been chairman of the private investment company Tappenden Holdings since 1997, and a member of the University of Auckland Council since last year.

From 1993 to 2000 he was a director of Team New Zealand. Currently, he is serving a second three year term as a member of the Market Surveillance Panel of the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

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