Southland dairy farm owner Peter Moynihan is one of four candidates contesting two farmer-elected seats on Fonterra's board, with voting open until 10.30am on Tuesday 10 November.
Mr Moynihan, of Invercargill, is standing against sitting director Cathy Quinn, who is seeking a third three-year term, and two Canterbury candidates, Jessie Chan and Mark Cox. The two candidates with the most votes will take office when the co-operative's annual meeting closes at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton, on Thursday 12 November.
The vacancies arise because Ms Quinn and Brent Goldsack are retiring by rotation, the Otago Daily Times reported when Mr Moynihan's candidacy was announced in September.
Mr Moynihan runs a large-scale dairy operation, owning two farms and holding a shareholding in a third, according to Rural News. He is the outgoing chair of The Power Company Limited group, the Southland lines company, served 11 years as an elected Ravensdown director and before that spent more than 30 years as a senior agribusiness banking executive.
All four candidates went through Fonterra's independent assessment process. No shareholder took the alternative route of standing as a non-assessed candidate, which requires the signatures of 35 shareholders.
Ms Quinn, an Auckland-based former senior commercial lawyer at MinterEllisonRuddWatts, chairs Fonterra's disclosure committee and the strategic review committee that oversaw the sale of the co-operative's global consumer business. She also chairs Tourism Holdings and is a director of Fletcher Building and Rangatira.
Ms Chan is a director of AgriZero, Āmua Innovation and the Ngāpuhi Investment Fund, and has previously sat on the boards of RuralCo, AgResearch, Ngāi Tahu Farming and the New Zealand Pork Industry Board.
Mr Cox founded the Coxco Group, a vertically integrated agribusiness growing squash for Japanese and Korean markets, and the investment group Craigmore Sustainables. He is a director of Rakaia Irrigation and sits on the Ngāi Tahu Farming advisory board.
Voting opened on 20 October, and the first of nine in-person meet-the-candidates sessions was held at Invercargill's Ascot Park Hotel on 22 October. The final sessions are in Cambridge and Stratford today and in Palmerston North tomorrow. Two online sessions were also held this week.
Shareholders are also voting on seven annual meeting resolutions and, in Ward 3 in Northland, on a Fonterra Co-operative Council seat. Southland is not part of the council contest this year.
The election comes as Fonterra pays suppliers on a $9.50 per kilogram of milksolids forecast midpoint for the current season, following last season's $9.69 payout.
Votes can be cast online or by post. Results will be announced on the afternoon of 10 November, and the successful directors will join the board after the annual meeting two days later.
