OTTAWA – The government begins 1997 on the lookout for a new president and chief executive officer for the Farm Credit Corporation.
In mid-December, Gerry Penney was unexpectedly dropped as FCC president and CEO.
Agriculture minister Ralph Goodale will give no detailed explanation for the decision, other than to say all things must change. He praised Penney for his work over nine years.
“In the life of any institution, there is a time for renewal and rejuvenation and with the normal expiry of the previous appointment, it appeared to be the appropriate time to make the rollover,” he said.
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An FCC director said there was a feeling among board members, all appointed by Goodale, that new blood was needed at the top.
“It is a case that maybe some of the new board members look at things differently than the last board did,” said Lois Hole of Edmonton. “I don’t think there was horrendous unhappiness with Mr. Penney at all. He was a nice man, very hard working. There was a feeling that change was due.”
For Penney, the mid-December word from Ottawa came as a surprise. He had expected to be re-appointed.
“I was willing to serve another term,” he said. “I would have liked to stay on.”
The quiet-spoken bureaucrat, whose style has been conservative and low-key, said he is not bitter.
In fact, he is negotiating with Goodale now about the possibility of working for the department to help attract investment to the value-added side of the food industry.
“I’m hoping to stay in the sector,” Penney said from his Regina home, where he moved when the former Conservative government uprooted the crown corporation’s head offices from Ottawa. “And I’ll stay in the West if I can.”
Meanwhile, the emphasis turns to finding his successor.
Goodale said he wants someone able to lead the FCC into a “creative, dynamic period” when it will be asked to help finance the diversification of Canada’s rural and agricultural sectors.
“The person will have to have very very substantial financial experience,” said the minister.
As an FCC board member who will be involved in evaluating candidates, Hole said she wants someone who can get the message out.
“I would like someone who is an excellent communicator,” she said. “We need someone able to talk to everyone. And someone with real vision.”
At the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, president Jack Wilkinson said he hopes the new FCC boss has agricultural links.
While accepting that the new president likely will be recruited from the financial sector, Wilkinson said more than money sense will be needed.
“It would be hoped the new CEO would have a flavor about him to understand who the client base is and hopefully will understand agricultural lending,” he said. “That’s all we ask for.”
