A farmer from south-central Saskatchewan and another from South Australia plan not to stay on Viterra’s board of directors past March.
Vic Bruce of Tuxford, Sask. and Paul Daniel of Balaklava, South Australia have both said they will not stand for re-election to the board at the grain giant’s annual shareholders’ meeting, scheduled for March 8, 2012 in Calgary.
Bruce and his wife operate Sunrise Farms, a pedigreed seed operation at Tuxford, about 20 km north of Moose Jaw. Bruce is also a delegate for Federated Co-operatives and, since 2008, a director of the Soil Conservation Council of Canada.
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Bruce’s history with Viterra dates back to 1987, when he served as a delegate for Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (1987-95, 1997-2005). He joined the company’s board of directors in 2002, when SaskPool’s board was still largely farmer-elected.
When the Pool shed its farmer-director structure in 2004 as it underwent major financial restructuring and recapitalization, and when it merged with Agricore United as Viterra in 2007, Bruce was one of the few farmers to remain on the company’s board.
Daniel also came to Viterra’s board through mergers, as a founding director of South Australian fertilizer company Direct Fertilizers (1997-2004). That company later merged into grain handler ABB, of which he became a board member in 2006. Viterra took over ABB in 2009.
The Daniel family farm’s acres are devoted mostly to grains at Balaklava, about 90 km north of Adelaide in South Australia’s main production area for wheat and barley.
