Dairy NZ

Alister Body

Farmer elected

Alister lives and runs his farming business in the Mid-Canterbury region.  He has a Bachelor of Commerce (Agriculture) from Lincoln University.  

Alister has been heavily involved in farmer advocacy, including acting as a farmer representative on Dairy InSight's advisory teams prior to being elected to the board. He currently chairs the DairyNZ Human Capability Leadership group and is a director of Pastoral Genomics.

Michael Spaans

Farmer elected

Michael Spaans is a dairy farmer from Te Aroha, who is also Chairman of Innovation Waikato Ltd, Chairman of Animal Breeding Services Ltd, DairyNZ appointed member of NAIT board and Chairman of the Tokanui Advisory Committee which oversees the conversion and research activities of AgResearch's new dairy farm at Tokanui.

He is also a former Fonterra Shareholders' Council member.

Ben Allomes

Farmer elected

Ben, 33, lives and runs his farming business in Woodville with his wife Nicky and four children.  He has a degree in Applied Science,  Natural Resource Management from Massey University.

Ben was president of New Zealand Young Farmers for three years and has reached the grand final of the National Bank Young Farmer Contest twice (placing sixth in 2004 and second in 2006) and, with together with Nicky, won the New Zealand Sharemilker of the Year title in 2008.

He is currently on the Rural Business Network Advisory committee, is a member of the Taratahi Reference Group.

Barry Harris

Independent

Former Chief Executive of the Wellington Regional Council and Environment Waikato, for the last four years Barry was the Director of Fonterra Milk Supply.

He was responsible for achieving Fonterra's milk growth goals in a way that is profitable for farmers and sustainable for the environment.

Barry is also a Director of AgResearch.

Barbara Kuriger

Farmer elected

Barbara has been farming for 30 years with husband Louis and currently they farm two properties with family members in Taranaki.

She is currently a Director of Dairy Training Ltd, a Director of AgricultureITO, Chair of the NZ Dairy Industry Awards Trust, a former member of the Fonterra Shareholders' Council, and past Chair of the LIC National Council.

Barbara received an AGMARDT Scholarship to attend the inaugural Food & Agribusiness Marketing Experience (FAME) in 2006.

John Spencer

Independent

John is Chairman of KiwiRail, AsureQuality,Tainui Group Holdings, WEL Networks  and Telfer Young.

He is Deputy Chairman of Legal Services Agency and a Director of Tower Ltd. He is the Audit Committee Chairman of Tower. He was the Chief Executive of New Zealand Dairy Group prior to the formation of Fonterra, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

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Helen Anderson

Independent

Former Ministry of Research, Science and Technology Chief Executive Dr Helen Anderson for many years was the government's key advisor on science issues.

Prior to her chief executive role Helen was MoRST's Chief Scientific Adviser for more than five years. She has been New Zealand's representative at several international forums including APEC and the OECD and has recently been made a Companion of the Queens Service Order and a Companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand - an honour recognising outstanding leadership in science and contributions to the promotion and advancement of science and technology in New Zealand, and a Companion of the Queens Service Order in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours.