Fonterra Welcomes New Managing Director International Farming

01 Dec 2014 --- Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited is pleased to welcome new Managing Director International Farming Alan van der Nagel to the business.

Mr van der Nagel reports directly to Chief Executive Theo Spierings, and replaces Henk Bles who has served as Interim Managing Director since April. Mr Bles is staying on in an advisory role for up to six months, ensuring a smooth leadership transition.

Chief Executive Theo Spierings said Mr van der Nagel had a considerable level of executive experience in internationally integrated dairy companies in emerging markets, and an impressive track record of driving operational excellence, working with multi-cultural teams, and managing large-scale international joint ventures.

"Alan has held senior executive roles with Parmalat in China, and more recently with Almarai Company in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest fully integrated branded dairy operation which has a farming operation with 145,000 cows."

Mr van der Nagel, a New Zealander, started his dairy career in New Zealand before taking up his first senior operational role within the Parmalat Group in Australia in 1989.  He remained with Parmalat for 14 years and was based in China for several years, where he was the Country Manager/Managing Director from 2001 – 2003.  In 2004, he moved to Saudi Arabia to work for Almarai Company, where he has been Group General Manager Operations since 2008.

Selectively investing in global milk pools is one of Fonterra’s strategic priorities, said Mr Spierings.

"The purpose of International Farming is to provide a high quality, safe and traceable supply of milk as part of our integrated supply chain in our key markets, and a key strategic focus in the short to medium-term is China.

"I would also like to thank Henk Bles and the International Farming team.  Henk has successfully guided the reorganisation of International Farming and its establishment as a separate global business," said Mr Spierings.