Dryden Spring ousted as Tenon chairman by Tony Gibbs

11.30am

Guinness Peat Group director Tony Gibbs has replaced Sir Dryden Spring as chairman of Tenon, in a post takeover purge of the wood processor's board.

Last week Rubicon, 19.9 per cent owned by GPG, gained 50.1 per cent of Tenon.

Rubicon is a holding company for Fletcher Challenge's old forest technology assets, while Tenon was formerly known as Fletcher Challenge Forests.

Former Dairy Board chief executive Warren Larsen also resigned from the board today, Tenon said in a statement.

Sir Dryden said he was proud of what the board had achieved since the company had separated from Fletcher Challenge Ltd, and he and Mr Larsen left the company "in good heart and with very strong channels to market, and a very good young management team in place".

The Tenon board is now comprised of chairman Tony Gibbs, Michael Andrews, Rodger Fisher, Luke Moriarty and Michael Walls.

Meanwhile, Rubicon also announced changes to its board, reducing it to five members -- chairman Stephen Kasnet, Hugh Fletcher, Tony Gibbs, Bill Hasler, and the company's chief executive Luke Moriarty.

Michael Andrews, John Villiger, Jouko Virta and Gary Weiss stepped down.

"We believe the Rubicon Board is now 'right-sized,' in both competencies and number, to take the company forward and complete the immediate tasks in front of it," new chairman Steve Kasnet said in a statement.

- NZPA