PGG Wrightson chairman Keith Smith is stepping down from the top seat in favour of TVNZ's chair Sir John Anderson.Sir John's appointment to the board as an independent director and as chair of the company was just one of a raft of changes to the governanc
PGG Wrightson chairman Keith Smith is stepping down from the top seat in favour of TVNZ’s chair Sir John Anderson.
Sir John’s appointment to the board as an independent director and as chair of the company was just one of a raft of changes to the governance of the company.
Governance changes were promised by Mr Smith following PGW’s heated annual meeting in October last year.
He said then there would be significant changes following the rights issue, held in December.
“There will be a full governance review following the capital raising and a number of board members will not be here as a result,” he said then.
The carnage resulted in Rural Portfolio Investments’ Craig Norgate and Baird McConnon stepping down, officially from March 1.
Mr Norgate, the former chief executive of Fonterra, created RPI with Mr McConnon as a vehicle to buy Wrightson, which soon acquired livestock company Williams and Kettle.
RPI, which had a shareholding of around 27% of PGG Wrightson before last year’s rights issue, saw this eroded to about 12% when it did not subscribe to its full rights entitlements during the November issue.
Instead, the balance of RPI’s rights entitlements were bought by new cornerstone shareholder Agria.
Mr Smith also announced the board seats would be reduced by one to 10.
While Mr Norgate and Mr McConnon are stepping down, RPI will be represented by Alan McConnon who will be come a director.
Independent director Murray Flett will also step down from the board.
The son of board member Sir Selwyn Cushing, David Cushing, will become an alternative director for Agria’s chairman Alan Lai and Chris Boddington an alternative for Agria chief executive Xie Tao.
As the new chairman from March, Sir John comes with significant business credentials.
As well as TVNZ, he chairs the Capital & Coast District Health Board, the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund and the Wellington Regional Strategy Committee.
He is a commissioner of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board and serves as a director on the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the Wellington Regional Stadium Trust.
Sir John is the former chief executive of ANZ National Bank, until he retired in 2005.
In 1995 he was awarded NBR’s New Zealander of the Year and in 2003 he received the Delittes Top 200 Company award as New Zealand’s most visionary leader.
In 2005, he was the inaugural winner of the Blake Medal for leadership contribution to New Zealand.
From March 1, the new PGG Wrightson board will be Sir John Anderson (chair), Sir Selwyn Cushing, George Gould, Bruce Irvine, Alan Lai, Alan McConnon, Keith Smith, Xie Tao, Bill Thomas and Tim Miles (managing director).
