Former finance minister Ruth Richardson is taking over the chairmanship of Christchurch "super-sniffer" company Syft Technologies.
Richardson, who joined the board as a director on June 1, will assume the chairmanship in August, taking the reins from the interim chairman, Peter Cox.
Syft started in 2002 as ajoint venture between Canterbury University's commercialisation business Canterprise and Breathe Technologies, and was backed by a group of private investors in a bid to commercialise technology which would instantly and accurately detect minute traces of volatile organic compounds.
Syft is Richardson's third board position with a Canterbury exporter: she chairs Jade Software Corporation and is a director of Synlait, a dairy company, set up in opposition to Fonterra to produce niche milkpowders.
