THE resignation of Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) chief executive officer Brenda McGahan had nothing to do with a clash of personalities within the board, according to AWI director David Webster.
Mr Webster said the core issue was the differences of opinion within the board on the future of the Woolmark Company.
"Some directors were seriously questioning its effectiveness and that had been ongoing," he said.
"As a director I would have been remiss if hadn't said that I wanted a hard look at this, because I don't want to come out in 12 months time and say sorry it didn't work.
"The instrumental gain we have with Woolmark export licensing and branding are just minuscule and unfortunately that's all gone to the bottom of the market.
"The top end of the market doesn't use Woolmark now, with the exception of Japan, so the company has to have a serious debate here.
"Some directors have one view, Brenda had another view.
"This is not about a personalities: I know its inevitable that personalities clash but there is a core issue in this."
Ms McGahan resigned from her position as AWI's CEO last week because differences of opinion made her position untenable.
Mr Webster said it was regrettable that Ms McGahan resigned, but urged woolgrowers to keep looking forward.
"I don't think it should take the spotlight away from the fact that here are a lot of opportunities happening at the moment," he said.
"People shouldn't get so focused on this one issue because it happens, it happens in countries around the world regularly.
"It's regrettable to me personally what happened with Brenda but I have a bigger responsibility to the shareholders to drive the organisation forward."
Mr Webster said the AWI board would now deal with the issues that had been bubbling under the surface for months.
"This will probably be a catalyst to make some serious decisions, and we and the growers all decided to go down the marketing path but I don't think we fleshed out the "what" and "how" well enough," he said.
"That doesn't mean we're stalling anything and we're not going to abandon the Woolmark Company.
"In reality this is something that should have been tackled head on, but the company was so focused on getting its house in order in the first three to four months.
"That engrossed the company and everyone's work for a very long period of time."
The Woolmark Company's future will provide some continuous discussion points for AWI going forward.
"Are we going to use a lot of effort having people running around the world to sell licenses?" Mr Webster said.
"Or are we going to have a look at the company and see how we can attach this to opportunity marketing like the Prince of Wales endorsement?
"Don't get bogged down over this, we've got a very big job to do, don't drop the ball.
"We've got momentum, the whole industry's got momentum and we have to maintain it."
Part of AWI's discussions and market research is evaluating China's potential as a final destination for Australian wool.
"There's a multitude of opinions here, there were three directors who went away and did a tour of the world and put in a very strong report, and they were supported by the board," Mr Webster said.
"They all came back very strong on the realisation of how big the opportunity in China was, and the amount of work we have to get in and go, but that doesn't mean you pull the rug out from underneath competition globally. "Supply will be extremely short looking at potential demand that is there now, particularly in Asia, it's about capitalising on that."
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