Craig Norgate

Who is Craig Norgate?

Craig Norgate is a New Zealand accountant and business leader in agricultural processing, marketing and related areas. He had a career as chief executive officer of dairy companies Kiwi Co-operative Dairies and Fonterra Co-operative Group, before consolidating the rural servicing industry through PGG Wrightson. His attempt to drive similar changes in the meat industry coincided with the advent of the global financial crisis and resulted in significant losses both for PGG Wrightson and his own private equity company.

Norgate had 15 years experience as a leader in the New Zealand dairy industry. He became GM of Kiwi Co-operative Dairies Ltd in 1991 and CEO at the age of 29 in 1994. In his time at the helm, Kiwi grew from a turnover of $285 million to $4.4b. In 1996 Kiwi Co-op took control of Mainland Products with a 66% share and lifted that share to 83% in a merger with Otago Co-op in 1998. Kiwi Co-op merged with New Zealand Dairy Group to form Fonterra, one of New Zealand's largest companies, in 2001 and Norgate was chosen as inaugural CEO of Fonterra for two years. He was New Zealand's first CEO on a million dollar salary. Fonterra bought the remaining 17 percent of Mainland from the McConnon family.