With Bill Carroll having stepped down from the board of Glanbia, there is now a vacancy on the Glanbia board for the south Tipperary region. There is no clear and obvious leader in the field. Carroll was up for re-election this summer, having completed his first term, and was returned unopposed. The chair of the regional advisory board is Clonmel man Dan Butler. Clonmel has had long unbroken representation, with Victor Quinlan serving for 16 years before Carroll. The other two names being spoken of are Tom Grant from Fethard and Dan Norton from Urlingford. Norton is on the Kilkenny side of the Tipperary border, but this is farming, not hurling, so that should not present problems. Michael Walsh would be a strong candidate, but is ruled out on age grounds.
With Bill Carroll having stepped down from the board of Glanbia, there is now a vacancy on the Glanbia board for the south Tipperary region. There is no clear and obvious leader in the field. Carroll was up for re-election this summer, having completed his first term, and was returned unopposed.
The chair of the regional advisory board is Clonmel man Dan Butler. Clonmel has had long unbroken representation, with Victor Quinlan serving for 16 years before Carroll. The other two names being spoken of are Tom Grant from Fethard and Dan Norton from Urlingford. Norton is on the Kilkenny side of the Tipperary border, but this is farming, not hurling, so that should not present problems. Michael Walsh would be a strong candidate, but is ruled out on age grounds.
Whoever succeeds in being elected will soon face a further contest, as Glanbia co-op’s representation on the plc board will soon shrink. Currently, all 14 farmers on the board of Glanbia co-op are also on the plc board. This is representative of the historical majority shareholding that the co-op held in the plc.
The co-op now holds 36.5% of the plc, and will lose four plc board seats next year. In 2018, it will fall from 10 to eight, before finally settling at seven in 2020. The chair will not necessarily be a co-op nominee from then on.
Currently, there are four executive directors – ceo Siobhan Talbot, finance director Mark Garvey, Performance Nutrition ceo Hugh Maguire, his counterpart in ingredients Brian Phelan, along with company and board secretary Michael Horan. There are four non-executive directors – Donard Gaynor, Patrick Coveney, Paul Haran and Dan O’Connor.
I understand that the process for deciding who stays on the plc board and who leaves has been agreed. The chair and two vice-chairs will be automatically returned. The entire board will then decide the remaining seven positions from among 11, voting one to 11 in a full proportional representation-type process. As one wag observed: “It’ll be like the Eurovision, but with less glitter.”
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