Fonterra Co-operative Group has announced the appointment of Richard Allen as its next chief executive officer.

Richard Allen will succeed Miles Hurrell who announced his resignation last month.

Allen joined the New Zealand dairy co-op as a graduate in 2008, since then his career has spanned Fonterra's global supply chain.

Fonterra

In his most recent role, Allen is president global ingredients and is responsible for ingredients sales, optimisation, risk management, trading and global manufacturing.

He also led the farmer facing business Farm Source for five years and has worked in China as vice president of the co-op's foodservice business.

Allen was the founding chief executive of MyMilk, a company aiming to help young and new farmers establish a foothold in the industry.

More recently, he served as Fonterra's Atlantic president based in Chicago, where he was responsible for relationships with a number of global key accounts.

Commenting on the appointment, Fonterra chair Peter McBride said Richard Allen is "an exceptional leader who will bring to the CEO role a strong connection with farmer shareholders and customers".

He added that Allen has "a deep knowledge of Fonterra’s global operations and markets".

Richard Allen says he is incredibly humbled to be appointed as chief executive and feels great pride to be leading the co-op.

"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.

"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 (business to business) dairy provider," Allen said.

CEO

Richard Allen will step into the chief executive role on May 1, 2026.

Miles Hurrell will stay with Fonterra in an advisory role until September 2026 to assist with the leadership transition.

"Miles has worked well with the board to develop leadership talent and plan succession, which has allowed us to run an efficient appointment process for Fonterra’s next CEO," McBride said.

Earlier this month, Fonterra confirmed that it had completed the sale of its global consumer and associated businesses, Mainland Group, to Lactalis.