Te Awamutu farmer John Wilson had been selected by the Fonterra board to take over as chairman of the dairy cooperative when Sir Henry van der Heyden steps down from the role in December.
The appointment will be put to members of the cooperate at its annual meeting, which has been set down for December 17.
Van der Heyden said Wilson, who has been on the board since 2003, would bring "lengthy experience" to the role.
Wilson is a previous chairman of the co-operative's Shareholders' Council.
He lives on his family dairy farm near Te Awamutu and also manages a dairy farming business in South Canterbury.
Wilson is chairman of South Auckland Independent Testing Society Ltd and a director and of the listed produce company, Turners & Growers.
"Over the past two years the board has been working through a considered and disciplined process to appoint a chairman elect and ensure the succession plan we have is in the best interest of the co-operative,' van der Heyden said in a statement.
Van der Heyden has been an instrumental force behind Trading Among Farmers (TAF), a scheme which will let farmers trade shares among themselves and which will allow investors access to the dairy giant.
On top of voting in the next chairman, shareholders will also vote on constitutional changes to lower limits on the size of the Fonterra Shareholders' Fund from a previously endorsed 25 per cent of the company to 20 per cent.
At last month's shareholder meetings, shareholders voted in favour of TAF but the second part of the vote, which was for changes to the constitution, fell just short of the required 75 per cent support.
Shareholders will again vote on the changes to the constitution at the annual meeting but the future of TAF is not contingent on the outcome.
According to Fonterra's last annual report, Wilson is chairman of the capital structure committee and serves on the appointments, remuneration and development committee, the milk price panel and the fair value share review committee.
In 2000, Wilson was awarded the Nuffield Scholarship.
"I've been a farmer all my life and I'm a third generation farmer. The cooperative has been bloody good to us and it is a real privilege and an honour to now have the responsibility of leading the cooperative later this year," Wilson told APNZ.
Wilson, like van der Heyden, talked of ensuring a smooth transition.
Wilson said he would develop his leadership style after the annual meeting. "But for me it is essentially business as usual for Fonterra," he said.
Willy Leferink, the chairman of Federated Farmers Dairy, said Wilson was "ably equipped" to step into van der Heyden's shoes.
Since Wilson's appointment to the board, Fonterra has gone from generating $11.8 billion in revenue to around $20b today.
Leferink said Federated Farmers "strongly hopes" that Wilson will put in place a clear succession pathway by creating a deputy chairman.
"A lack of board succession is a strategic weakness given Fonterra is a team made up of farmers, staff, customers and suppliers," he said.
Wilson will be in charge of the world's fourth largest dairy company.
Van der Heyden, a key figure in the formation of the cooperative in 2001, has been chairman since 2002.
He is a director of Auckland International, Independent Egg Producers Ltd, Elevation Capital Management Ltd, Pascaro Investments Ltd and Manuka Ltd. He is also a member of Rabobank's Food Agribusiness Advisory Board of Australia, the New Zealand Business Forum and a director of Zespri International.
In other announcements, Fonterra said Ian Brown had been elected chairman of the Shareholders' Council, and Philip Palmer as the deputy chairman of the council, following a vote by councillors on Tuesday.
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