Waikato dairy farmer and businessman Michael Spaans has been elected chair of the industry body DairyNZ.
DairyNZ Chairman Michael Spaans Photo: DairyNZ
He replaces John Luxton who retired last month.
Mr Spaans has been farming since 1984 and also has farming interests in Canterbury, Chile and the United States.
He is a director of Fonterra and ASB Bank and has been on the DairyNZ board for seven years.
His interests overseas and his directorships will help him in his new role, Mr Spaans said.
"Certainly the knowledge you gain from those different perspectives helps your understanding and ultimately should lead to better decision making around the board table.
"If you look round the DairyNZ board we've got quite a number of directors that sit on other boards as well and collectively that brings a huge amount of experience and wisdom into the discussion and debates that we have around the table, which ultimately adds quite a lot of value, I think."
