Mr Hailes, the Alliance Group's general manager commercial, is a processor representative on the board, along with Glenn Tyrrell, from Silver Fern Farms in Dunedin.
He moved to Invercargill last year, where he is based at Alliance's corporate office, having previously managed the company's Pukeuri plant for six years.
He has a law degree from the University of Otago and worked in private practice before joining Alliance in 1993.
He was legal counsel for the meat company, before moving to Dannevirke in 2003 to manage a new Alliance plant and then to Pukeuri.
Mr Hailes, who has already attended several DINZ board meetings, said it was an interesting industry.
"There's great potential ... in terms of where it can go."
From a meat point of view, the outlook for protein generally was "pretty good".
He was particularly interested in some of the research projects, including the deer progeny test which was under way.
The sheep industry had made great gains with the central progeny test and there was similar potential in the deer industry, he said.
Mr Hailes said the board was a "good mix", which covered the whole industry.
The board is: Andrew Macfarlane (chairman), Jeremy Bell (Wanaka), Tim Aitken (Hawkes Bay), Collier Isaacs (Central Regions), Colin Stevenson (Waipa), Andrew West (Waikato), Mr Tyrrell and Mr Hailes.