Board of Directors


To ensure efficiency, the Board has delegated to the Managing Director and subsidiary company boards (other than PGG Wrightson Finance Limited) the day to day management and leadership of the Group.

The Board has delegated some of its powers to Board operating committees – the Audit Committee and the Remuneration and Appointments Committee. The Committees are made up of a minimum of three non-executive Director members and each Committee has a written Board-approved charter which outlines that Committee’s authority, duties, responsibilities and relationship with the Board. The current members of the Committees are set out below:


Audit Committee Remuneration and Appointments Committee
Bruce Irvine (Chairman) Sir John Anderson (Chairman)
Sir Selwyn Cushing Tao Xie
Sir John Anderson Sir Selwyn Cushing
  Bruce Irvine
  Bill Thomas
  Alan Lai
  Wah Kwong (WK) Tsang
  Greg Campbell
  Dr Zhi-Kang Li


To read director biographies move the cursor over each directors names.

Click here to view the Group Leadership Team.

  • Sir John Anderson
    (Chairman)
  • Bill Thomas
    Bill Thomas


    Bill Thomas

    (Independent Director)


    Bill Thomas farms Longbeach, the historic coastal flat land property 14km southeast of Ashburton. He is involved in irrigation development, arable, sheep and beef and dairy farming. Bill is also a Director of PGG Wrightson, having become a Director of Pyne Gould Guinness Limited in September 2001.

  • Bruce Irvine
    Bruce Irvine


    Bruce Irvine

    BCom, LLB, FCA, FNZIM, AFInstD.


    Bruce was appointed to the PGG Wrightson Board in June 2009 and is also a Director of Pyne Gould Corporation Ltd and its subsidiaries including MARAC Finance Ltd and Perpetual Trust Ltd. Bruce was Managing Partner at Deloitte Christchurch from 1995 to 2007 before his retirement in May 2008. He now acts as an independent director on various boards including: Christchurch City Holdings Ltd, House of Travel Holdings Ltd, Godfrey Hirst NZ Ltd, Market Gardeners Ltd, Rakon Ltd, Scenic Circle Hotels Ltd and Skope Industries Ltd.

  • George Gould
    (Managing Director)
    George Gould


    George Gould

    (Managing Director)


    George was appointed as a director on 5 January 2010.

    George is a company director and investor. He is chairman and major shareholder of Christchurch based investment company Gould Holdings Limited which has a successful track record in private equity and New Zealand listed equities.

    George was managing director of NZX listed Pyne Gould Guinness Limited, leading the management of the merger of that company with Reid Farmers Limited from 2001 to 2003. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of NZX listed South Eastern Utilities Limited, whose main achievement was the acquisition of Wairarapa Electricity Limited in 1996 and its subsequent sale in 1999.

    A qualified lawyer, George is a graduate of Canterbury University and London School of Economics. He is a fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management and a member of the Institute of Directors. George is presently an independent director of Orion New Zealand Limited and Christchurch International Airport Limited. He has interests in pastoral farming and commercial property.

  • Sir Selwyn Cushing
    Sir Selwyn Cushing


    Sir Selwyn Cushing

    KNZM, CMG.

    (Independent Director)


    Sir Selwyn was appointed to the Wrightson Board in March 2005 following the acquisition of Williams & Kettle Ltd, of which he had been a Director for more than 20 years.

    Sir Selwyn has extensive experience in the rural sector and has been involved with public companies for 40 years. He is currently Chairman of Rural Equities Ltd and New Zealand Rural Properties Trust Management Ltd and Skellerup Holdings Ltd. He has been a member of the New Zealand Exchange for 30 years and has been involved with many corporate investment projects.

  • Tao Xie
    Tao Xie


    Tao Xie

    Bachelor's Degree


    Tao Xie (known by most as XT) was appointed as a Director of PGG Wrightson Finance Ltd on 30 December 2009. XT is the Chief Executive Officer / Director of Agria Corporation.

    XT was engaged in advisory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) for 20 years where he led PWC’s China market corporate finance practice and served on the firm’s governing Board.

    XT has extensive experience in China related cross-border investments and M & A and has helped structure many well-known China businesses. XT received his Bachelor’s degree in physics from Beijing University in China and was a member of the United Kingdom Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.

  • Guanglin Lai (Alan)
    Alan Lai


    Guanglin Lai (Alan)


    Alan Lai was appointed as a director on 30 December 2009.

    Alan has served as the chairman of Agria’s board of directors since June 2007. Alan also served as Agria’s co-chief executive officer from September 2007 to June 2008 and as chief executive officer from November 2008 to September 2009. Alan is a director of BCL, which is Agria’s largest shareholder. In 2002, Alan founded Ace Choice Management Limited, a company that specializes in promoting business and investment activities between the Peoples Republic of China and other countries. From 2000 to 2002, he was managing director of Shenzhen Keding Venture Capital Management Co. Ltd, a venture investment management company. Alan is the chairman of the board of directors and chairman and a member of the nomination committees of China Pipe Group Limited, a Hong Kong-listed company that manufactures construction and energy related pipes in Asia. Alan holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia and is a certified public accountant in Australia.

  • Wah Kwong (WK) Tsang
    Wah Kwong Tsang


    Wah Kwong (WK) Tsang


    Wah Kwong (WK) Tsang was appointed as a director on 2 November 2011.

    WK is an independent director of Agria Corporation and is the Chairman of its Audit Committee and a member of its Remuneration Committee. WK was a partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers Hong Kong and China Firm (PwC). He has extensive experience in auditing listed and unlisted companies in different industries and providing support for initial public offerings and acquisition transactions. During his over 30 years with PwC, he experienced working in various offices including Hong Kong, New Zealand, Macau and China. He was responsible for the daily practice of Macau and Shenzhen (China) offices while being stationed there. WK received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a fellow member of Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, a fellow member of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK and a member of Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

  • Greg Campbell
    Greg Campbell


    Greg Campbell

    MBA(Dist), FNZIM, MInstD


    Greg Campbell was appointed as a director on 2 November 2011.

    Greg has held the position of CEO Ng-ai Tahu Holdings Group since October 2009 on his return from overseas. Prior to this role he was Managing Director of Transpacific Industries NZ Limited, and CEO Australasia where he led the purchase and integration of Waste Management NZ in 2005 along with a number of other significant New Zealand and Australian based companies. Greg has had extensive New Zealand and international executive and governance experience spanning industry sectors such as the petroleum industry, infrastructure, local government (CCTO), heavy industry, public transit, manufacturing, energy and environmental sectors. He has held a wide range of directorships in Australia and New Zealand during his career within listed companies, privately held and not for profits. He is currently a director of EcoCentral Limited, Ng-ai Tahu Fisheries Settlement Limited, Agria Asia Investments Limited and Agria (Singapore) Pte Limited.

  • Dr Zhi-Kang Li
    Dr Zhi-Kang Li


    Dr Zhi-Kang Li

    PhD, MSC, BSc

    (Independent Director)


    Dr Zhi-Kang Li was appointed as a director on 2 November 2011.

    Dr Li is the Chief Scientist, Institute of Crop Sciences/National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), in Beijing China. He is also the Senior Molecular Geneticist/Breeder, Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology Division, International Rice Research Institute and the Coordinator of the International Rice Molecular Breeding Network in Asia. He has a PhD in Genetics (Minor in Statistics) from the University of California – Davis. He has expertise in plant molecular genetics (including gene/QTL mapping, marker-assisted plant breeding, gene QTL, discovery and genetic/molecular dissection and functional genomics of complex phenotypes), and their applications to rice cultivar development, genetics and evolution. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Genetics Society of America and the Chinese Society of Crop Science.