Mr McLachlan has served on the board of AWI since being elected by growers as a director in November 2002.

He was elected by fellow directors as chairman at the same time.

Standing down as chair in April this year, Mr McLachlan said it was purely his own his decision to retire from the board and is in line with his earlier plans and statements to retire this year.

"Brian van Rooyen is a very good company director and will be an excellent chairman," Mr McLachlan said.

"I am sure that he will provide outstanding leadership as the company grows following the integration with Woolmark.

"I am also particularly pleased that AWI has appointed three new professional directors in Dr John Keniry, Robyn Clubb and Ken Boundy, all with excellent commercial credentials in agribusiness, finance and marketing that will assist in the continued building of an international marketing company.

"These attributes were needed to round off the expertise of the board.

"The executive search process for these new directors was exhaustive, and very professional."

Mr McLachlan said a number of key achievements have recently been made by AWI, including:

• integration of AWI with the industry's marketing arm, The Woolmark Company;

• changing the direction of the business to a product marketing focus;

• developing a business that has partnerships with over 200 international retailers worldwide; and

• preventing animal activists from affecting the price of wool over the last four years or so.

"The industry will always go through change whether that be driven by customers' needs or the environment in Australia, but one thing is certain – Australian woolgrowers have always and will in the future meet all these challenges through innovation and tenacity," he said.