New boss back from the dead

Allan Freeth

TelstraClear chief executive-designate Allan Freeth was as dead as a duck on the first Saturday in May when he ranged himself with fellow Wrightson directors against Craig Norgate's hostile takeover bid for the country's biggest stock-and-station business.

The former chief executive and managing director of Wrightson was already in Norgate's gunsights, say agribusiness commentators, but Freeth's publicised defiance and dismay over Norgate's takeover tactics bagged him.

Former Wrightson chairman John Palmer, also ousted with Freeth and the rest of the board, said the geneticist's siding with the board was "totally" in accordance with corporate governance guidelines.

Hostile takeovers take no corporate prisoners, so why was the most common reaction yesterday to Freeth's appointment as the head of TelstraClear one of total gobsmack?

Was it because he re-emerged in the telco sector or because he re-emerged at all? Freeth is not talking until he takes up the job in a month.

A senior analyst said most in the market were "astounded".

"He didn't appear to have achieved anything much at all at Wrightson. He's not at all highly regarded in the equity markets."

But wasn't Freeth instrumental in rescuing the 160-year-old company from the receiver in the late 1990s?

"The cycle [robust agricultural commodity prices] had more to do with it than anything," said an analyst.

Directors' Institute chief executive Nicki Crauford agreed that "gobsmacked" was an appropriate reaction to Freeth's appointment.

But Palmer, chairman of Air New Zealand, said Freeth and TelstraClear were "an excellent fit between the person and the task".

Allan Freeth

Age: 44.
Qualifications: BSc (hons) Canterbury University. Doctorate of Philosophy (population genetics). MBA (with distinction).
Career: chief executive Wrightson 1999-2000. Managing director Wrightson. General manager Trust Bank Wellington 1994.