Mayo Schmidt, the former chief executive officer for
Viterra, has been dropped by Louis Dreyfus Commodities.
He was supposed to become the company’s chief executive
officer, but Dreyfus said they “have jointly decided not to proceed . . . while
retaining the highest mutual professional respect.”
Dreyfus issued a statement on New Year’s Eve, saying this
development followed “a more detailed analysis of the terms and conditions of
their planned employment relationship.”
The company’s search for a CEO “will resume immediately,”
Dreyfus said.
Schmidt was famous – or notorious, depending on
differing points of view – for converting the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool from a
cooperative to a limited company which aggressively expanded and then changed
its name to Viterra.
He engineered the purchase of Agricore in 2007 which is
also when the name changed to Viterra.
Agricore was itself a merger between United Grain Growers
and Manitoba Pool Elevators which also were farmer-owned cooperatives.
Viterra is by far the largest grain handler on the
Canadian Prairies.
Schmidt left after Glencore International
bought Viterra on Jan. 1, 2013.
