I see Denis Lucey (79) is retiring after 11 years as chair of Aryzta. He cut his teeth in the dairy co-op world, where he led the merger of Mitchelstown and Ballyclough to create the largest dairy co-op in its time, Dairygold, in 1990. It was here he showed his capacity to embrace change and all its challenges.

In 2000 both he and then chair Denis Cronin were forced to fight off a no-confidence motion at an EGM in Millstreet from suppliers furious over the society’s milk price structure at the time.

He joined the board of IAWS in 2003 and became chair in 2005 at a time when IAWS had a struggling legacy agribusiness and a niche food business.

Depsite its recent struggles, Aryzta has created huge wealth. As chair, he presided over the IPO to create Aryzta through the acquisition of IAWS and the merger with Hiestand in Switzerland along with the ultimate disposal of the agribusiness which netted over €1bn for Aryzta shareholders.

During his tenure, food revenue increased from less than €500m to almost €4bn, while profits increased from less than €90m to over €600m from 2005 (ignoring joint ventures). He is replaced by Gary McCann.