Canadian Wheat Board CEO performance

[Kodiak]

I'm in agreement with Francisco on Ian White, CEO of the Canadian Wheat Board.

I had hopes that he would be a stand-up guy with a mind of his own.

Charlie, I know it could be a very difficult situation in the CEO chair - especially if you are a professional, and you are being directed by the Board of Directors to do things that go against your judgment and your knowledge. However under no circumstances should a CEO have words put in his mouth by others, even by his Board of Directors.

Ian White is responsible for the quotes attributed to him and contained in the media release whether he wrote them or not. To sign off on them, or not refute them if they were published without his consent means he said them, he believes them, and he will defend them.

How he can defend them is unexplainable. Especially since the CWB has not, in their own words, quantified Informa's “flaws”. At least not yet. Especially when readily available information - much from the CWB itself - shows they do not pay farmers a premium. In fact there own self described “strategy” is to sell an equal amount of grain every day. That produces premiums - exercises “market power “?

Mr. White has previously said the single desk must bring added value to farmers or it is not worth keeping it.

Has he determined there is a positive value? I for one need to see the evidence of premiums, valued added, and superior cost containment in CWB operations. As per usual all we have is the same old CWB rhetoric, and now it’s also being spouted by the new CEO. That’s very disappointing for those like me who had some expectations that the Government had found and hired a professional to replace the ideologue they fired.

I hope the contract he signed allows a 6 month review of his performance and a termination clause if he doesn't measure up.

[TOM4CWB]

Kodiak,

1. The Gov. & Minister of the CWB rubber stamped the hiring of the new CEO... hence the Federal Court dropping the issue on the firing of Measner...

2. Blame the CWB Board of Directors... even the CWB Act for stopping the President from doing what needs to be done. In some organisations the CEO/Pres tells the Chairman what is to be done... if they don't like the advice... they have the 'right' to fire the person. However this appears not to be the situation with the CWB... especially in the area of Risk Management. It is obvious to a two year old that the pooled risk management and rules around management of futures on PPO contracts... are causing massive losses... for both individual growers and the CWB.

Any other grain co. that charged $50/t to liquidate a contract... that had $100/t futures gain... basis being equal and not causing a loss... should be up for fraud charges! Yet the CWB breaks the CWB Act/Code of conduct constantly on issues like these.

CWB Management and Legal people tie the hands of both the Directors and CEO according to the CWB Act.

If you want to fix the CWB... change the Act/Legislation itself... using the parliament of Canada...the courts have clearly said this takes precedence over anything else!

[TOM4CWB]

Time clock on threads...

I just posted the last thread 2 minutes ago.

[TOM4CWB]

It is 7:50am

[northfarmer]

reading White's comments on the wire this morning just about made me spit my coffee out.....

unique wheat that fetches a premium my arse, where is the premium? it certainly did not accrue to me as the grower..we carried huge inventory over for our customers through the highest prices ever..now I do suspect that this was spun by the comm dept at the bloated bueracracy that we all pay for....

political rehotic and excuses are what they are spewing.....fight the findings with numbers and facts.....we are out billions of dollars...fire them all....screw the CWB

[Kodiak]

I'm still trying to make sense of this. I've come to the conclusion that one of two things are going on there.

1. There is complete chaos and discord at the CWB - such that White can't do anything or gain control. This might explain the ridiculous comments and the continual and increasingly bizarre and irrational statements. As is often the case, before a big change in the landscape a series of seemingly unexplainable things occur.

or

2. White was incapable of maintaining his professionalism - if he in fact ever was a professional - and is just as big a part of the problem as his predecessors. And like Measner has become an ideologue and trained messenger for the CWB Board of Directors and the spin department.

In either case, the inmates are in charge of the asylum.

[parsley]

#2 is most accurate.

Parsley

[charliep]

Just a note to highlight that Ian White is only one person in a staff of many on the operations side and one vote on the board of directors. His role is to manage the CWB organization through a process of change and to ensure efficient operation. - the speed and direction of which is being discussed here.

[parsley]

A competent CEO provides direction and inspiration, not data entry.

Parsley

[Kodiak]

And just to repeat - a CEO will not allow the kind of statements that were made in the CWB response to be attributed to him if he does not support them. No matter how difficult the situation is in terms of managing change, the statements made - whether by you or on your behalf as CEO- are the beliefs and convictions that have to be held to.

However if in fact he does not support them, there is only one way to distance himself from them. He must - just as publicly as they were made - refute them. And if the statments are such that he cannot support them and someone in the communications department put words in his mouth, that situation must also dealt with. Heads must roll. And not just one or two I would think.

[Hopperbin]

Northfarmer I also am bothered by the premium they think they get on our supposedly higher quality grain. In that respect selling HRSW and comparing it to lower quality or priced grains showed that they made an even poorer job of commanding a premium price.
On another issue I would just like to get rid of the last 140 ton of CWSWS wheat that I fixed priced. Seems no one wants to take delivery. I can see it now the CWB will demand me buy it out for the price diff. all the while there was no sale for that grain in the first place.

[bucket]

The only way they can dispute the informa study is to put the numbers in front of farmers and the public. They won't do it, so their defence of their position is not believable. Trust us the cwb says - we got you the highest prices. Hogwash, I been following grainline.com since last september and phoning elevators in the states just to compare - The cwb is so far behind they think they are ahead. Fricking morons.

And as for this White fellow - no sense of integrity at all. To sign off on a press release written by someone as arrogant as Fitzfunny (as deanna allen was) is quite frankly retarded.

If the board of directors would have signed it, it may have made more sense for their incompetence anyway.

[haveapulse]

He who pays the piper calls the tune, it is as simple as that.

Performance of White? I would like to say that of a trained seal but I espect that would take at least a little more energy and time to achieve a repetitive pattern from a seal.

Mouse on a wheel is maybe better.

We can only hope if we bring in a new wheel with new directors that he can be as quickly taught to run the different direction and make the CWB effective under a choice directive.

Give us choice if it is so darn good.

If you are the best, we will support you.

To use a line from Kim Campbell:
What are they so afraid of?