Fonterra has offically announced that Anna Palairet has been permanently appointed to the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO). Palairet has been acting in the position since June 2023.
CEO Miles Hurrell said that Palairet has valuable expertise and a strong relationship focus, which has served her well in leading a critical part of the Co-operative.
“Anna has extensive experience in operational, customer, sustainability, and sales roles. She spent more than a decade in senior leadership roles at Air New Zealand before joining Fonterra in October 2022 as Director of Global Supply Chain and she is the current chair of global logistics provider Kotahi GP Limited," said Hurrell.
“I thank Anna for her leadership to date and look forward to her ongoing contribution to the Fonterra Management Team.”
Recently, Fonterra announced it would install a 20-megawatt electrode boiler at its Edendale site in Southland.
This is another step for the Co-operative as it works to get out of coal by 2037 and reduce Scope one and two emissions by 50 percent by 2030 (from 2018 baseline).
The forecast $36 million investment in the electrode boiler will reduce the Edendale site’s emissions by around 20 percent or 47,500 tonnes of CO2e per annum – the equivalent of taking almost 20,000 cars off NZ roads - and will reduce Fonterra’s overall carbon emissions from its NZ 2018 baseline by nearly 3 percent per annum once operational in FY25.
Palairet said the team considered a number of energy options before deciding on the electrode boiler.
“Fonterra has a complex manufacturing operation spanning the country. As technologies develop, it’s important we continually assess which energy source and technology is best for each site," said Palairet.
“With up to 15 million litres of milk being processed at our Edendale site each day, we need to ensure we have a secure energy supply that can meet processing demands."
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