Changes To Board Structure And Auditors

Fletcher Challenge Forests Announces Changes To Board Structure And Auditors

AUCKLAND, 20 April, 2001 – Fletcher Challenge Forests Limited, formerly called Fletcher Challenge Limited, announced changes to its Board and auditors today.

Following completion of the separation of the Fletcher Challenge Group, Roderick Deane, Paul Baines, Hugh Fletcher and Kerrin Vautier have resigned from the Board.

Rodger Fisher, Stephen Hurley, Warren Larsen, Terry McFadgen (Chief Executive Officer) and Michael Walls have been appointed to the Board (biographies of the new directors are attached). These appointments were initially announced in the Forests Division Information Memorandum issued during the Group separation process. Michael Andrews and Sir Dryden Spring remain members of the Board with Sir Dryden taking over the chairmanship from Roderick Deane.

Since the early 1980s, owing to the size and diversity of the Fletcher Challenge Group, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers have been joint auditors. However, following completion of the separation, the Board has decided the ongoing audit of the smaller entity comprising only the Forests business will be carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers and accordingly, KPMG has resigned as joint auditor.

KPMG has been appointed auditor of the two new companies which emerged from the Fletcher Challenge separation, Fletcher Building Limited and Rubicon Limited.

Ends

FLETCHER CHALLENGE FORESTS LIMITED

DIRECTORS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Rodger Fisher - FCIS

Mr Fisher practises as a business consultant. Prior to that he was the Managing Director of Owens Group Limited between 1987 and 1999. He is Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority, the Aviation Security Service, and The Blues Franchise Limited. Mr Fisher is Deputy Chairman of WEL Energy Group Limited and a Director of the Auckland Rugby Football Union, the Eden Park Trust Board of Control and Waste Management (NZ) Limited. Mr Fisher is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries, the Chartered Institute of Transport, the Institute of Directors and the New Zealand Institute of Management.

Stephen Hurley - BA, MBA (Hons) (Harvard)

Mr Hurley has been an investor in the global forest products industry for over 25 years. He is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive of Xylem Investments, Inc., an international forestry investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to founding Xylem Investments, Inc. in 1994, Mr Hurley was Principal, Director and Investment Committee Member of Resource Investments, Inc (RII – now know as UBS Brinson Resource Investments). Mr Hurley was previously a fund manager at Fidelity Investments, and prior to that he was a Vice President of JP Morgan Investment Management, Inc. Mr Hurley is a member of the Association of Investment Management and Research, the New York Society of Security Analysts and the New York Forests Products Analysts Group.

Warren Larsen - MAgSc (Hons), BBS, CA

Mr Larsen is the Chief Executive of the New Zealand Dairy Board, having held that appointment since 1992. He previously managed New Zealand Dairy Board's Protein Division, until his appointment as Chief Executive in 1992. He was Chief Executive of Bay Milk Products until 1991, and received the New Zealand Dairy Industry Fellowship Award in 1985. Mr Larsen is a Director of PDL Holdings Limited and MPH (New Zealand) Limited.

Terry McFadgen - LLB (Hons) (Auckland), LLM (Harvard)

Mr McFadgen was appointed Chief Executive of Fletcher Challenge Forests in October 2000. He was previously Chief Executive of Fletcher Challenge Building, a position to which he was appointed in 1996. Mr McFadgen has held the positions of Commercial Director of the Construction and Property Division, Fletcher Challenge Limited, Chief Executive Officer of Jennings Group Limited and he also headed the Fletcher Challenge Group’s Executive Offices Department. Mr McFadgen was, until 1990, a senior partner at Simpson Grierson in Auckland and has worked with international law firms in New York and London.

Michael Walls - BA, LLB (VUW), LLM (London)

Mr Walls practises as a business consultant. He was previously the Managing Director, Investment Banking, for BZW New Zealand, and then for its successor, ABN AMRO New Zealand, from 1997 to 2000. Prior to that Mr Walls practised as a commercial lawyer at Chapman Tripp, where he was a partner from 1972 until 1996 specialising in mergers and acquisitions, international finance and corporate law. Mr Walls is a former Chairman of Directors of BHP NZ Steel Holdings Limited, and a former Chairman of Directors of the listed Independent Press Communications Limited (now Wilson & Horton Holdings Limited). In addition, he has been a Director of a number of unlisted companies. He is the Chairman of the Board of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research.

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