CEO excited by new role and welcome
| Published date | 15 April 2021 |
| Author | Laurilee McMichael |
| Date | 15 April 2021 |
Happily though, dairy is not a new industry to Watson, who took up the Miraka role on February 3, replacing departing chief executive Richard Wyeth, who had been with the company for 11 years and who had taken it from being a plan with a greenfields building site to a respected player in the New Zealand dairy industry. Wyeth is now chief executive of Hokitika-based Westland Milk Products.
Watson, a former winner of the New Zealand Young Executive of the Year title, spent 10 years at Fonterra, the giant of the New Zealand dairy industry. In contrast, Miraka occupies about 1 per cent of it.
But Watson says moving to Miraka gives him the opportunity to be involved with a business that does everything from on farm through to taking products to market — “from gate to plate”.
He says one of the very clear mandates is to build on the momentum that Wyeth and the leadership team have created: growing the business, attracting the best staff, the best farmers and creating more value back to farmer suppliers.
Watson comes from “an unorthodox background” as a chief executive. He bypassed the university and MBA route, instead working his way up through McDonald’s starting as a teenager at Mt Albert Grammar working part-time to earn money for flying lessons.
When he left school, he stayed at McDonald’s full time, realised “I quite liked business”, and progressed through the company’s management scheme over the next 18 years, eventually becoming chief operating officer.
“It was the best apprenticeship in business you can ask for. It’s a tough business but a very well-run, well-organised business and I was very thankful for the time I had there.”
At Fonterra, Watson first worked on its Anchor milk business in New Zealand then ran TipTop for three years and then became head of Fonterra’s global food service business.
The food service business’s top-line sales doubled under Watson’s watch and he stayed in the role for five years. Then the Miraka role came up.
“I had a really healthy respect for Miraka from the outside looking in. I didn’t know the detail but I had the sense that it’s highly sustainable, arguably one of the most sustainable dairy businesses in the world and the other thing is the culture of the business. We would often hear really positive things about the team and the broader culture.
“This is in relative terms a smaller business...
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