Ep18: Margie Haseltine: Resilience, Determination and a Portfolio Board Career

You now sit on two listed companies, Metcash and Ingham's, and three private companies, Kennard's Hire, Real Pet Food Company and Active Tree Services.

What do you most enjoy about the listed but also the private sector and how do you decide what a new opportunity has to offer or how much value you can add before you say yes?

It's a really interesting question.

ASX boards in themselves are fabulous and the dynamic is something that I think if you get the opportunity to experience, but it's a whole new level of decision making.

I think from coming out of Mars as the freedom, to have the agility, the speed, the connection to the owners, the ability to sit in a safe ground and actually talk through difficult topics or difficult way without actually having to sort of suddenly disclose to the market or take investors who may not have the same interest at heart, even though they should.

of a company with you.

So I really do think the freedom and the decision-making and the financial freedom as well to sometimes take bigger risks and move with agility versus the ASX.

And this is not a reflection on public support, but what I would say in my private boards is we really have fun.

And the connection in belonging for me on a private board, for whatever reason, is far stronger.

And it's not about not being connected with the puppy listed.

Tell me a bit about Active Tree Services because you read all the others out and then you go Active Tree Services.

How did that happen? Well, I'm not

going to give you the full story, but a colleague of mine, ex-Mars, I bumped into actually at a funeral and we hadn't seen each other for ages and ages and he's in Active Tree Services and he said, Margie, He said, this is an amazing family and they're looking for a board director and I think you would be perfect.

And I said, I'm not actually looking for more work at the moment.

Thank you very much.

But I did go and meet with the family and I immediately loved them.

the family and i could see um a they're a good family but b the business is an amazing business so if you if you look the science of lopping trees and removing trees and the technology involved and the infrared cameras and the fact that in the city of sydney every tree has a number so the council know exactly what that tree is and when it's due for lopping and all of that And the health of the trees is really important in terms of the well-being of keeping us, you know, keeping gorgeous green trees in Sydney.

So once you actually start to get involved in understanding the whole area of trees and the importance of them to us and how they, when we remove them, and then you've got the complete opposite where you've got these almost 100% automated massive machines clearing underneath trees transcripts power lines in the country or doing or the emergency work after a storm or a cyclone to clearing paths for firefighters for bushfires and when you get into it and you realize how the purpose is so amazing it's just a fascinating board the people are great wow wow

Back to your country roots

again.

Back to my country roots again, yes, Claire.

Trees in New Zealand.

You've chaired both Risk and Sustainability and People and Culture Committees.

What's changed in these two areas of board governance in the 20 years or so since you started building your own portfolio?

That's a fascinating question.