By CHRIS DANIELS
When Craig Norgate got the top job at New Zealand's biggest company, two things raised eyebrows in and outside the dairy industry - his youth and his salary.
At $2 million a year, Norgate was New Zealand's highest-paid executive, and at 35 one of its youngest.
His first job
in the dairy industry came in his hometown of Hawera, where he followed his father's footsteps into the local Kiwi dairy factory.
At age 26, he took over the reins as chief executive.
In an interview this year, Norgate said his mother was not happy about his move into the industry, primarily because of its effect on his father, Frank, who died at the age of 48.
When Norgate was 21 he became district accountant for the Maori Affairs Department in Hastings, responsible for 14 staff.
The previous year he had married Jane, a nursing student, whose mother also lived in Hawera.
The couple shifted there, Norgate working as a meat company accountant before getting his first taste of the dairy industry.
By the time Kiwi Dairies and New Zealand Dairy Group agreed to amalgamate with the Dairy Board to form Fonterra, Kiwi had grown from small provincial manufacturer with a $300 million turnover to a $3.9 billion player.
The merged co-operative had its troubles, including the "Powdergate" scandal involving illegal exports of milk powder. The Serious Fraud Office continues to investigate the affair.
In an interview with the Weekend Herald last year, Norgate was asked what would happen when his contract came up for renewal.
"We'll have achieved all I initially set out to by the time my initial two years is up," he said.
"While there's clearly another journey to follow that, I've also got other goals in life."
One was to spend more time with wife Jane and their children.
Work commitments meant he had seen his eldest son play only three games of rugby that season.
Asked about earning New Zealand's biggest pay packet, Norgate replied that he had little time to spend it. One of his few splurges was on an S-type Jaguar.
In reality, money had to be saved for that rainy day: "You don't have very long at the top in business."
