The Country 15/12/25: Riley Kennedy talks to Jamie Mackay

The rural editor at BusinessDesk names his Ag Person of the Year, and he’s gone for Mark Wynne, the former chairman of the Alliance Group.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The countdown to Christmas continues on the country. We get
some of our regular correspondents and not so regular to
name their ag Person of the Air. I think this
next guy has been a bit of an unsung hero
in the rural media. His name is Riley Kennedy. He's
the business editor at Business Desk. Does great work. Riley.

(00:22):
Now you're going to name your ag Person of the Air,
but before you do, I think you were at Fonterra
this morning for some sort of meeting there and you
were surrounded by Greenpeace. Some things don't change, and.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Very good to you. It was very exciting. I turned
up and outside the door and someone stuck a camera
in my face and they said do you work here?
And I said no, I'm just passing by him off
to your new Dell and then I snuck around the
back and got on the background of the Funday team.
But it's very exciting. I'm not actually sure I can
get out because the farmergator here and the police are
real with Okay, well.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Good luck getting out of Fonterra. You weren't at Fonterra
sucking up to the boss, Miles Hurr or don't tell
me he's your AG Person of the Year, although I
must say he's a bit of an early favorite along
with last year's AG Person of the Year Todd McLay
and another name that's been thrown out there I think
Mike Petterson did last week Craig Piggott from Holter, So

(01:13):
who are you got?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
It would definitely be Mark Whitten from Alliance Group. You
can't fault his effort this year. It was a job
that probably know a ourselant to take on and he
had to front it for probably the best part of
the year up until whenever that transaction settled, which was
about a week or two ago. He's definitely my AG

(01:36):
Person of the Year, Jenny.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
And of course Mark one is the chair of the
Alliance Group, former chief executive of Balanced Agra Nutrients and
it was a bit of a poison challice, I must say.
And you follow this closer than I do, Riley, but
all the noise seems to have faded over the Alliance deal.
I think the shareholders are just getting on with it now. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I see. They had be first trade on the us X,
which is where the co op is now listed. So
that's an exciting milestone for a nerd like me. But
you know, he really had to. I mean, who really
would have wanted that job, having to front the five
down there that tried to put up a fight. He
literally had to fight every day to get that deal

(02:16):
over the line, and then at the end of it
he ended up losing his job and now he's just
a director. He lost the cheer, which I asked him
about that a while ago and he said, oh, I
know this is bigger than any personal governance job.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Well, I think he engineered himself out of a job, didn't.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
He, Yes, yeah he did. But you know it's not
very often you see people that actively go like that.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, well yeah, okay, that's a really interesting one. What
about the I mean Todd McLay. Of course, if he
could have got that free trade deal across the line
before Christmas, you would have had to have gone with
him again. But Craig Piggot's a really interesting one. If
you had much to do with Halter.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
A little bit. But it is a very interesting business.
I see you in Australia last week that it was
actually banned to use wearables live in two states like
Victoria and New South Wales, which they actually I was
reading a headline this morning that will open up a
big growth market for I. It is a hugely interesting

(03:14):
business that I think it's got a lot of potential.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
A bit later in the week, I'm going to be
chatting to a lady by the name of Alie Shanks.
Do you remember who she is or was? Is Olympic
and Commonwealth Games cyclist member are now yep? Well she
works for Holton now, so that might be an interesting
yarn for a bit later in the week. Riley Kennedy
at Fonterra HQ, good luck getting out of there. I

(03:39):
hope Greenpeace don't kidnap you.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
I hope not, but there's a lot to kidnap, so
I mean good luck to them if they try.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Good on you, mate. You keep up the good work.
You've done an excellent job on business Desk And once
again a shameless plug in for one of n zmes products.
It's worth subscribing. It's as cheap as chips and you
get like a and or more stories every day. Keep
up the good work. You have a good break. We'll
catch it back in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Thanks Jami.