In a statement to the NZX yesterday, Mr Kippenberger said he looked forward to spending more time with family and friends while supporting other New Zealand businesses through his investment and governance work.
A formal search process is under way for his replacement and Aaron Vanwalleghem, Scott’s president of Europe and North America, has been named interim chief executive.
Mr Kippenberger, who once described the NZX-listed company as "one of those unsung New Zealand success stories", joined Scott in late 2019.
Since his appointment, he has led a "reset" of the company, redefining what it does, how it operates and the sectors it targets.
Born and raised in Wellington, he spent the early years of his career in the banking industry, including foreign exchange trading, working in Wellington, London and Sydney.
The opportunity arose to run part of a large global company George Weston Foods and he was given a series of bigger companies within its stable which were business-to-business but also consumer-branded businesses, generally across Australasia.
In 2006, Mr Kippenberger had a chance to buy a company of his own, Beehive Bacon, with a couple of other investors, a smaller business that he went into as shareholder and managing director.
After growing the business and its subsequent sale, he moved to a role as managing director and chief executive of a manuka honey business, which had been bought by some Australian private equity investors.
That business grew substantially over three and a-half years before it was sold to a large conglomerate from Hong Kong and Malaysia, after which he later joined Scott.
In the statement, Scott chairman Stuart McLauchlan said Mr Kippenberger had brought tremendous energy and focus to the business. That included bringing a clear sense of purpose and sense of direction across the global Scott operations built on a strategy of achieving scale through commercialisation of proven technologies.
In June last year, Scott began a strategic review of its ownership structure, following discussions with the company’s majority shareholder, food giant JBS, which owns 53.05% of the Scott shares.
In November, Scott said discussions with potentially interested parties would not progress any further as no offers were received at price ranges which reflected the independent directors' valuation for all of the company.
However, a range of other initiatives had been identified during the process, though these were at an early stage. .
