CSB - Cameron Henderson - DairyNZ director

The DairyNZ Board of Director nominations opened this week, DairyNZ director Cameron Henderson gives a rundown on the number of vacancies and process.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
From the crooked Field to the cow shed. It's the
Country Sport Breakfast with Brian Kelly on Gold Sport on
the show. Now it's time to catch up with Cameron
Henderson who's from darien Zed. He's a director of derry
en Z darien Z Border Directors nominations opened this week
back on Monday. So Cameron, thanks for joining us. Mate.
Can you give us a rundown on the number of

(00:21):
vacancies in the process.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, sure, Ron. So there's two positions up for election
this year. One is a position from Jacqueline rowis retiring
by rotation regular rotation of directors, and the other one
is from our current chair, Jim Vanderpold stepping down. So Jim,
Jim is stepping away from the board altogether, but Jacqueline

(00:44):
is seeking reelection. So two positions up for grabs with
one of the current directors, you're really wanting to have
another go.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
So, Kevin, what does a director role on the darien
Z board look like?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Look, it's quite varied. It's a little bit different to
a lot of other director roles. You know, we have
our standard duties and regular monthly meetings looking at you know,
the Darian z company gets south, looking after the finances,
making sure the money is being well spent, executing on strategy,
and there's a lot of discussions around those topics. But
we also have a number of other duties and I

(01:19):
guess connecting with farmers. You know, we do a lot
of shed meetings, connecting with farmers up and down the
country and also with other decision makers, local government politicians,
national politicians, working with other industry groups to ensure that
you know, we're all kind of rowing in the same direction.
So yeah, large large trunk of networking which I really
enjoy alongside the more formal roles of just making sure

(01:43):
the Airianz is running well.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Are there any key skills that ideal candidates need to have.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, I think general governance experience is very very useful.
You know, that is our legal responsibility and it's something
that I think if you're standing for a director, you
need to have a very good understanding of you do
take on responsibility legal responsibility as a director for the company.
So that's that experience is really valuable. And beyond that,
you know, just having good networking skills, being able to

(02:13):
connect with with, as I say, farmers and politicians, and
people from all ends of the spectrum to understand what
their needs are and to present the views of darians
and dairy farming in general. And then look, really we're
after just a general variety of skills, you know, whether
you've come from a science background or a policy background

(02:33):
or you know, we're just need a variety of different
skills a ball level. We don't want all of us
to have come from exactly the same cloth. So yeah,
really the more variety the better.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Do you have any tips or advice for farmers maybe
considering applying for the board?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, Look, I think if you've got the chance to
have a chat to either a current director of Bearings
ed or any director of any cooperative is quite useful
just to get a better standing of you know, is
this the sort of job or role that I want
to be taking on? You know, there is, there is
a lot to it, so I think having a good
understanding of the role is really important. And for those

(03:10):
that perhaps you know, maybe not this time round, but
some stage in the future, you know, just just keep
an eye out for some other opportunities to gain a
bit of experience. You know, we have a number of
associate director roles in the industry that can help with
you know, you know, helping people understand what the job's
all about and whether it's something they want to pursue.
And again a number of education opportunities, you know, with

(03:32):
the likes of institute or directors or other industry governance
training programs to give people some experience. So any of
those venues will be really useful, either either for this
year or in the future.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Fantastic Cameron. Hey, thank you for joining us so much.
Have a good day, no problem, darien Z Director Cameron Henderson.
So nominations are now open and further info obviously is
online as well. Dearian Z directors, just go look it up,
look up slash the election and where you go get involved.