Ed Prendergast:The death last week of Ed Prendergast, the chief executive of Lakeland Dairies Co-operative Society Limited, removed from Irish agribusiness a truly committed players in one of the country's oldest industries.
Some say that dairy industry was too small for him, because he thought globally in an industry which, by its very structure, is highly conservative.
His direct, no-nonsense approach to business was sometimes not appreciated by those who failed to understand his total focus on the business of farming and marketing.
His love and knowledge of dairy farming was inherited from his family who ran a dairy herd near Cappoquin, Co Waterford, where he was born 46 years ago.
His family was heavily involved in the co-operative movement and that affection for the movement stayed with Ed throughout his life.
This commitment to farming and the need to ensure that people could stay on the land and farm framed his thinking on defending the retention of the milk quota and on the development of the dairy industry in the northwest.
Up until recent weeks, Ed was to the forefront in insisting that no changes be made in the rules which govern milk production which would disadvantage the northwest.
He was deeply involved and promoted rural development in the area and believed in developing economic progress through co-operation.
His greatest fear was that the person with the largest chequebook could buy milk production rights and take them from that area to other parts of the country. These areas would then become denuded of producers and this would impoverish the countryside of its people.
Ed Prendergast was a business studies graduate of the University of Limerick and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants who spent most of his working life in the food and beverages industry. He was finance director with Cadbury Schweppes Beverages in Athy, Co Kildare, prior to joining the Heinz Corporation in 1993.
Initially, he was general manager of the company's Dundalk Pizza manufacturing facility but his business acumen was spotted and he moved swiftly through the ranks.
He left Heinz in 2001 when he was business unit director with pan-European responsibility for the company's then $200 million frozen ready-meals operation.
According to his colleagues in Lakeland, he brought a great sense of energy to the company which is now the second-largest dairy co-operative and fourth-largest dairy processor in Ireland. Within a short time of his arrival, Lakeland went on a major acquisition drive. His "expand or fail" motto saw the co-op acquire Bailieboro Foods, Pritchitts and Nestle in Omagh, Co Tyrone, which he successfully integrated into the wider group.
Despite battling cancer, he never complained about his illness and the company he encouraged to expand now operates across 15 counties on a cross-Border basis, processing over 850 million litres of milk annually.
His was not an easy task trying to persuade farm shareholders that their future lay not in entrenching their own operations but expanding beyond boundaries.
He moved like a man in a hurry but he gained the affection of his staff despite the fact that many of his farming suppliers considered him abrasive.
However, there was a very warm and kind side to the Cappoquin man, latterly based in Julianstown, Co Meath, whose love for his family came second only to his love of rugby. He brought analogies from the game into his work: his preference for dealing with problems was not to kick to touch but to sort them out inside in the ruck, he would say.
He took time out from the grind of business to coach the under-10 and under-12 rugby teams at the Boyne Valley Club in Drogheda. One of his greatest regrets was that he was not able to travel to Lansdowne Road in Dublin recently to see his native Munster beat Leinster in the Heineken Cup.
He is survived by his wife, Phoebe, and their children, Kevin (13), Peter (9) and Patrick (6).
• Ed Prendergast: born September 12th, 1959; died April 28th, 2006