Montreal banker Thomas Birks has been elected the new chairman of the board at Canada’s largest grain company.
Birks joined the board of what was then Saskatchewan Wheat Pool in 2005, before the Regina company’s merger last year with its larger rival Agricore United under the name Viterra.
He is currently president of merchant bank Birinco, Inc., and previously served as president of Montreal jewelry retail firm Henry Birks and Sons, which merged into Birks and Mayors Inc. in 2005 and is now headquartered in Florida.
As chairman Birks replaces Terry Baker, a cow/calf producer and grain farmer from Denzil, Sask., about 140 km south of Lloydminster.
Baker, who according to a company press release on Wednesday will continue to sit on Viterra’s board, joined the SaskPool board in 2001 and had been chairman since 2004.
