By PHILIPPA STEVENSON
Inaugural Fonterra chairman John Roadley was always going to be a short-term leader of the dairy mega co-op he so passionately wanted.
He began putting in work on the concept in the early 1990s when he was chairman of the now defunct Alpine Dairy Products.
The idea for
a giant co-op was so unpopular that proponents risked ostracism by the industry's powerful forces.
By the time the plan gained traction Mr Roadley was Dairy Board chairman and two other factors were in his favour.
As the South Islander among the North Island dairy industry's warring factions, he was regarded as relatively neutral.
And he was one of the few people, if not the only one, able to convince farmers of the plan's merits.
He did it. His job is over.
"John Roadley," he said yesterday, "is going home."
What is more interesting is what his departure reveals about those left behind.
As deputy chairman, Greg Gent was Mr Roadley's heir-apparent. Why did he not step up?
When Mr Roadley was appointed he was New Zealand Dairy Group's man and Mr Gent was from Kiwi Dairies, the two rivals that, with the Dairy Board, formed Fonterra.
But the $50 million Powdergate scandal over illegal exporting erupted on the eve of Fonterra's formation and Kiwi Dairies, of which Mr Gent was chairman, was at the heart of the deals that are still being investigated by the Ministry of Agriculture's Food Safety Authority.
The next question for Fonterra will be whether it has stuck to the former chief executive of Kiwi, Craig Norgate, now in the same role at Fonterra.
The review process on Mr Norgate's two-year contract should start soon.
