This article is from page 65 of the 2008-10-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 65 JPG
THE 35th ICOS National Co-opera- tive conference will be held in Dub- lin’s Citywest conference centre next Monday, November 3 when the key- note address will be given by Agri- culture Minister Brendan Smith.
Sponsored by FBD TRUST, the conference, entitled “Co-operative Business – Ready for 2015 and Be- yond” will have two international speakers who have spearheaded ground breaking campaigns within the co-operative movements in their own countries.
Kees Wantenaar is the Chairman of Campina Co-op in Holland. With a turnover of €4bn from its global op- erations, it is the second largest dairy co-op in Holland. Set to merge with the largest, Friesland Foods, turnover will be in excess of €9bn. Mr Wan- tenaar will be the first Chairman of the newly merged FrieslandCampina when it receives EU Competition clearance.
Also speaking 1s Blue Read, Chair- man of Fonterra Shareholders Coun- cil, New Zealand. The council is an independent body from the board of Fonterra and the role is to review and
monitor the board’s performance as well as to represent the interests of shareholders in the Co-op.
Irish Co-ops can learn important lessons from Mr Read’s address, es- pecially on the issues of Governance and the representation of sharehold- ers’ interests along with Fonterra’s role in developing directors and shareholder representatives to carry out their roles in the Co-op.
Also speaking will be Tom O’Mahony, Chief Executive of Ori- gin Enterprises – a major player in the Agri Nutrition sector in Ireland, UK and Poland; John Tyrrell, Direc-
tor General of ICOS focusing on the future challenges facing co-ops and Ray Doyle, ICOS Livestock Services Executive addressing issues on Car- bon and Climate changes for proces- sors and producers.
The conference is expected to be fully attended because of such high profile speakers.
The Irish Co-operative industry is facing difficult challenges, the aim of the ICOS conference is to support those businesses and their members to plan and proactively lead the Irish Co-op agribusiness sector in meet- ing those challenges.