NEW ZEALAND – Fonterra’s chairman John Monaghan is due to retire as a director in 2020 and will the work with the board of the dairy giant to plan succession.

Monaghan was elected to the board in 2008 and became chairman last year, replacing John Wilson. Monaghan was due to retire by rotation at next year’s annual meeting, marking the end of his three-year term. 

“Having seen through the introduction of our new strategy, operating model, and with our divestment and debt reduction efforts well progressed, I will be working with the board in 2020 to facilitate chair succession.

“The timeline for that succession will be agreed by the board nearer to the time,” Monaghan said.

However, the company maintains that Monaghan has not made a decision about whether to stand again, reports nzherald.

Simon Israel steps down

Independent director Simon Israel will also leave, having decided to step down at this year’s annual meeting after more than six years on Fonterra’s board.

Israel was appointed to the board in 2013, and is currently a member of Fonterra’s Appointments and Remuneration Committee.

Based in Singapore, Israel is currently the chairman of Singapore Telecommunications, and chair of Singapore Post.

“He has been a real asset on our board over the past six years and I would like to thank Simon for his significant contribution to the board and our co-operative,” Monaghan said.

Fonterra says Israel’s decision is in support of planned succession and the need to phase the refresh of the cooperative’s Independent directors.

Annual results reporting date

The dairy company has said that it will be reporting its audited financial results for the financial year ending 31 July 2019 on 26th September 2019.

Earlier this month Fonterra, which was expected to release it results on 12 September, said it needed more time to complete the audited financial statements because of significant accounting adjustments.

At the time, the dairy giant confirmed its previous announcement that it expects a reported loss of between NZ$590 – NZ$675 million (US$377- US$432 million) for the financial year under review.

Fonterra has been grappling with financial woes that has seen the company plunge into several write-downs and one-off accounting adjustments.

Among the assets which could be further written down are Fonterra’s infant formula and dairy farm investments in China, its Chilean and Australian businesses.