PPCS could follow the Alliance Group and appoint its first nonfarming chairman today.
The board will meet this afternoon to select a new chairman after the dumping of Reese Hart by shareholders in elections announced this week, but it faces a choice between political harmony or business knowledge.
Mr Hart was in the job for just two years and there is no obvious successor, but given the industry could be about to undergo substantial structural change, the board may opt for someone with a business background and promote deputy chairman Richard Somerville, a chartered accountant and independent director who was appointed to the board in 2004.
Traditionally, a non-farmer appointment would be unthinkable for a farmer-owned cooperative, but sheep and beef farmers are demanding wholesale changes to the meat industry and may be more tolerant of a businessman.
Mr Somerville is chairman of Milford Asset Management and a director of Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground, Milford Dart Ltd and several private companies.
But the board could decide it needs to retain a farmer chairman to retain a connection and relationship with its farmer-shareholders during expected industry change.
If it decides to go that way, the choice appears to be between Millers Flat farmer Eion Garden and Joe Ferraby, a Marlborough farmer who also has extensive business interests.
Mr Garden farms 2500ha and has been a board member since 1998. He has a high profile in the sector and has been active in several farmer organisations.
Mr Ferraby has also been on the board since 1998 and farms 600ha. He is chairman of Terra Vitae Vineyards and Destination Marlborough, and a director of Combined Rural Traders, the Equitable Group of Companies and several other private companies.
PPCS in the past year has reduced its board from 14 to 12, including 10 farmer-appointed directors and two independently appointed. The three directors elected this week, Ian Grogan, Hestall Ulrich and Rob Hewett, join five others who have been on the board less than three years.
Alliance earlier this year took what some considered a radical step by appointing a non-farmer chairman in Owen Poole to replace long-serving chairman John Turner, whom shareholders voted out late last year.
The move was even more radical given Mr Poole, a former chief executive of the company, had only been appointed to the board a few weeks before his promotion to chairman.
Mr Poole has a background that mixes business experience from running a $1 billion company with an affinity for and ability to relate to farmers.
