New Directors Add Depth to Ballance Board

There will be two new faces around Ballance Agri-Nutrients’ board table on 28 October following a ballot of the co-operative’s farmer shareholders.

Gray Baldwin, a Putaruru dairy farmer, won the vacancy for the western North Island ward and Canterbury farmer Murray Taggart was successful for the vacant South Island directorship.

Both men have a background in banking and have strong, ongoing farming roles.

Mr Baldwin has a long association with Ballance. He was CEO of Summit-Quinphos when Ballance moved to 100% control last year and was part of the Ballance senior management team for the preceding six years.

His organic dairy farming partnership with his wife Marilyn and their sharemilkers Hamish and Jane Putt won the top award in the 2009 Waikato Ballance Farm Environment Awards in March.

Mr Baldwin said he strongly supports Ballance’s strategy of sticking to its core business of fertiliser.

‘We have a strong base to work from and I look forward to being part of the team that takes the co-operative to the next level,’ he said.

Mr Taggart runs a mixed sheep and cropping enterprise near Oxford. He is a past chairman of the National Meat and Wool Council, Federated Farmers and past member of the Federated Farmers national board.

He is a serving director of CRT Society Ltd, the farmer co-operative operating in the South Island and chairman of the Board of Trustees at Christchurch Boys High School.

‘I support the company’s strategy and look forward to further growth as the Ballance footprint is expanded,’ Mr Taggart said. ‘I believe my background and experience will allow me to make a positive contribution.’

The vacancies were caused by directors retiring by rotation. Long-serving Southland farmer Peter Macdougall did not seek re-election, while fellow director Richard Jolly’s seat was won by Mr Baldwin.

The successful directors were announced at the co-operative’s annual meeting in Invercargill at the end of September.

Chairman David Graham said the change to the Board of Directors would be stimulating, and he welcomed the two new elected directors to the onboard in anticipation of their contributions to the co-operative going forward.

ENDS

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