Having dealt himself out of a job by merging his company into Viterra, Brian Hayward is now chairman of Winnipeg feed maker Ridley, Inc.
Hayward, until June this year, had been the chief executive officer of Canada’s largest grain handler, Winnipeg-based Agricore United, but stepped down after helping coax Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, the no. 2 handler, into increasing its proposed takeover bid for AU. The two companies are now merged as Viterra.
Hayward replaces John Keniry of Sydney, Australia on the board of the North American wing of Australia-based Ridley. Keniry had been the non-executive chair on Ridley, Inc.’s board since it went public on Canada’s TSX in 1997.
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Chris Martin, the former vice-president of corporate affairs and general counsel for AU, was also named yesterday to the Ridley board, as was Wayne Harden, a Manitoba grain farmer and retired managing director of Scotia Capital in Winnipeg.
Directors Dick Dawson and Cam Brown, who like Keniry had been on Ridley’s board since 1997, are also retiring from the board.
Ridley, billed as one of North America’s largest and most successful feed manufacturers, has divisions in feed (including the Feed-Rite and Hubbard brands), feed ingredients and animal nutrition (including the Sweetlix brand).
The company, along with the Canadian federal government, has in recent years been involved as a defendant in four proposed class-action lawsuits, filed in tandem by cattle producers in four separate provinces, claiming that negligence on the part of Ridley and government officials contributed to the arrival of mad cow disease (BSE) in Canada through the feed supply. The lawsuits, none of which have yet made it to trial, claim hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
