The Fairlie farmer retires by rotation along with John Nicholls and chairman Peter McBride but, unlike the other pair who have confirmed their intention to re-stand, she has served the maximum nine-year term and must step down.
This coincides with Fonterra’s board size being reduced from 11 directors to nine — including six farmer-elected directors and three independent directors — with the change coming into effect at its annual meeting in November.
This will represent the final day for Mrs Guiney.
"I am very sad to leave because we have such a good team operating now and have got the right relationship with the management team and I am thoroughly enjoying Peter McBride’s leadership as he’s a real team builder. We are in a clearer direction and I think we have better clarified where our strengths are."
She said there remained efficiencies to work on in allocating people resources and farmers’ capital, but good progress had been made and the co-op was in a better position than before.
In the immediate future, the focus of her and husband Kieran will be developing a farm at Marlborough’s Rai Valley with their daughter also part of the team.
The farm was bought in April and the family is building a new rotary dairy shed.
"The family business keeps growing itself and we’re in the Rai Valley now and building a fabulous team with a wonderful young manager up here and 2IC and we really love this sort of work. We’ve got three 50:50 sharemilkers now and two managers on five dairy farms and I just love building young people in the industry because once they get it and see how they can progress by keeping it simple and doing it well, they can get ahead in such a good industry."
Mrs Guiney said if she did another governance role it would be for producers because of her respect for farmers, their work ethic and what they delivered to New Zealand.
The couple continued sharemilking in Rangitata when they bought their first farm and put a manager on in 2005.
Since then a long-serving staff member has bought one of their farms and he’s now expanding and putting a manager on and Kieran’s brother has also bought his first farm, but will continue sharemilking for them.
"Our system is so simple you can replicate it and put managers under yourself so what I’m loving is watching the next generation do what we did and getting ahead starting with zippo and you can still do it."
Fonterra’s independent director Clinton Dines will have also completed the maximum term in November, and will not be replaced when he retires at the annual meeting.
Mr McBride said the retiring directors deserved praise for their contributions. Mr Dines’ international perspective and strong focus on risk and balance sheet management proved invaluable to the co-op as it reset its risk appetite and overall strategy.
He said Mrs Guiney had made a significant leadership contribution for the better part of a decade.
"Always generous with her time and energy, Leonie made a personal sacrifice to give back to the co-op that she loves. We cannot thank her enough. I know Kieran and the family will be glad to get that time back, but I’m sure Leonie’s leadership qualities will not be lost to our industry."
Over the years she has chaired the co-op’s safety and risk committee as well as serving on other committees and been a member of the Milk Price Panel and on the capital structure committee and divestment review committee.
