Fonterra has named Richard Allen as its new Chief Executive Officer, with the appointment taking effect on 1 May 2026. Allen, a company veteran who joined Fonterra as a graduate in 2008, will succeed Miles Hurrell, who stepped down in March after 25 years with the cooperative, including eight years as CEO.
The announcement comes days after Fonterra completed the $4.22 billion sale of its global consumer brands to French dairy giant Lactalis. That divestment — which included household names Anchor and Mainland — marked a fundamental shift in Fonterra’s direction. The cooperative is now focused entirely on its role as a business-to-business dairy ingredients provider, stepping away from the supermarket shelves it once dominated.
Fonterra Chair Peter McBride described the incoming CEO as well-suited to lead the business through its next chapter. “Richard is an exceptional leader who will bring to the CEO role a strong connection with farmer shareholders and customers and a deep knowledge of Fonterra’s global operations,” McBride said. “The Board is really pleased to announce Richard as Fonterra’s next CEO, who will lead the co-op into the next phase.”
Allen has spent his entire career at Fonterra, working across a wide range of roles since graduating. Most recently he served as President Global Ingredients, overseeing Fonterra’s ingredients sales, supply chain optimisation, risk management, commodity trading, and global manufacturing operations. That role sits at the heart of the business Fonterra is now doubling down on, making Allen’s experience directly relevant to the company’s new shape.
His career at the cooperative has taken him well beyond New Zealand. Allen spent time in China as Vice President of Foodservice, gaining experience in one of the most competitive and strategically significant markets in Fonterra’s world. He also served as President Atlantic, based in Chicago, managing global key account relationships with some of the world’s largest food and beverage companies. He was the founding chief executive of MyMilk, an early-stage digital venture Fonterra launched to better connect farmers with information about their herds and milk production.
Before his most recent executive role, Allen led the Farm Source business for five years. Farm Source is the part of Fonterra that deals directly with the farmer shareholders who own the cooperative, handling everything from on-farm supplies to rural services. That experience kept Allen close to the people whose livelihoods are tied to the milk price Fonterra pays each season.
Allen was recognised as Young Executive of the Year at the Deloitte Top 200 Awards in 2024, one of New Zealand’s most prominent annual rankings of business leadership. The accolade put him on many people’s radar as a future candidate for the top job.
In his own statement, Allen acknowledged the significance of the role and the moment he is stepping into it. “I’ve built my career with Fonterra and understand the important role the Co-op plays both for farmers here in New Zealand and our customers around the world,” he said. “I’m committed to maintaining the momentum in our performance, focused delivery of strategy and financial discipline that has been developed over recent years. Fonterra has a strong platform to build from and I’m excited by our prospects as we move forward as a New Zealand farmer owned global B2B dairy provider.”
Hurrell, who led the cooperative through the Covid-19 pandemic and the strategic transformation that culminated in the Lactalis deal, will remain with Fonterra in an advisory capacity until September 2026 to support the leadership transition. McBride acknowledged his contribution, noting that Hurrell “has worked well with the Board to develop leadership talent and plan succession.”
The Lactalis sale closed out a years-long process of Fonterra reconsidering what kind of company it wanted to be. For much of its history, the co-op had pursued growth across the entire value chain, from farm gate through to branded products on supermarket shelves in markets around the world. That strategy proved costly and difficult to execute at scale, and the board ultimately concluded the business was worth more focused narrowly on the high-margin ingredients market, where New Zealand’s dairy science and supply chain infrastructure give it a genuine competitive edge.
Fonterra is New Zealand’s largest exporter and a central pillar of the national economy. Its annual revenues have consistently exceeded $20 billion, and the cooperative is owned by roughly 10,000 New Zealand dairy farming families. The milk price it sets each season has a direct bearing on rural incomes and flows through to spending and investment decisions across provincial New Zealand.
Allen steps into the role at a time when global dairy markets face elevated input costs, shifting demand patterns in Asia, and ongoing uncertainty around international trade conditions. The full effect of the Lactalis sale — including how the proceeds will be distributed to shareholders and reinvested in the ingredients business — will be a key area of focus in his early months as chief executive.
Fonterra confirmed the appointment in a press release on its website, with further coverage available from RNZ Business and interest.co.nz.
What do you think about Fonterra’s new direction under Richard Allen? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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