The board chair of Big Sky Farms says shifting company founder Florian Possberg from president and chief executive officer to deputy chair is designed to move the Saskatchewan pork producer into new markets.
Larry Martin, Big Sky’s chair and an economist at the George Morris Centre in Guelph, Ont., said the board took the action when former employee John LaClare was able to take on the role of chief executive.
“It wouldn’t have happened now if John hadn’t been available,” Martin said in an interview.
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The move does not reflect Possberg’s performance during the current market downturn, Martin added.
“It’s a lateral move, if anything,” he said. “His salary hasn’t changed by one penny.”
Possberg had been moving more into industry and external relations and market development but because of current hog market conditions, he wasn’t able to devote the necessary time to those concerns.
The company must position itself to take advantage of the rebound, Martin said.
“There’s a bunch of things we want to do to make the company grow over the long term,” he said.
Big Sky, headquartered in Humboldt, is the largest hog producer in Saskatchewan with barns near 23 communities. It also owns three production units in Manitoba.
LaClare had served as Big Sky’s vice-president of operations about two years ago and Martin said his managerial skills were well-known to the board.
He headed the former Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s Heartland Livestock subsidiary when it entered the pork business in the 1990s.
