New Zealand’s Sanford Limited has announced that Rob McLeod is joining its Board of Directors on 1 January 2016.
Rob McLeod is the chairman of Ernst & Young New Zealand and has had an illustrious professional and governance career, having been on the boards of such companies as ANZ National Bank, Sky City Entertainment Group, Telecom etc. In addition he has, in the past, been chairman of Aotearoa Fisheries and Sealord Group as well as a commissioner of the Waitangi Fisheries Commission.
Paul Norling, Sanford chairman, said he was personally delighted that Mr McLeod had accepted the company’s invitation to join its Board. He said that the New Zealand fishing industry’s challenges included the maximising of financial outcomes from the country’s significant seafood resources. In this particular respect a person of Mr McLeod’s calibre and experience could make a very meaningful contribution to both Sanford as well as the wider New Zealand seafood industry.
Mr Norling went on to say that in his view, “with New Zealand seafood companies selling approximately 90% of their output (valued at some $1.54 billion per annum) into the international export market, the real competition was not from other New Zealand fishing companies but from the very extensive worldwide industry. Foreign fishing and aquaculture companies enjoyed differing forms of support from their country of origin or other competitive advantages that were not available to New Zealand fishing companies.”
To counter-balance this unlevel playing field to some degree, he believes there is considerable potential and financial upside for the New Zealand industry to operationally collaborate more extensively than they are at present with benefits for those that chose to participate.
