Man at the top
12
talking heads
What's NhwS Issue 10 October 1996
An international private banker and trust specialist
working with hammer and nails seems a
contradiction in terms.This is a delicate business
requiring subtlety, discretion and finesse, yet IPB
chief Thomas van Rijckevorsel's propensity for DIY
is perhaps not so far-fetched. In the end, both have
everything to do with building sound, often
intricate structures made to last.
Van Rijckevorsel is not only
handy with a hammer. 'I enjoy
all kinds of do-it-yourself in our
home,' he says. 'It's something
my wife, Saskia, and I do
together. She's extremely good
with wall-paper. And with three
growing children and the fairly
old house we bought recently,
there's a lot to do on the
decorating side. We've just
redone our daughter's room.
She's a teenager now and
wanted a more grown up
room.'
The Van Rijckevorsel's have
three children, Stephanie, Mare
and Willem, the youngest, who
was bom in the Channel
Islands where the family had
moved to set up trust activities
for ABN. 'We did quite a lot of
island hopping,' Van
Rijckevorsel says with his still
boyish grin. 'After I finished my
civil law studies, I'd joined
ABN. Unfortunately, they
started me off in the domestic
division, which was interesting.
I say unfortunate because it
soon became clear this wasn't
quite what I was looking for.
The problem was that at that
time shifting from domestic to
international was almost
impossible. I had to do some
pretty fancy foot-work to make
the change.'
Once he'd got in, the recently
married Van Rijckevorsels were
soon on the move. 'For the
record,' he adds,' I'd like to say
to that my wife is probably a
better tax lawyer than I am. I
learnt by doing, she actually has
the theoretic background as she
qualified in both civil and tax
law. 1'm really grateful that she
wants to stay at home to take
the lion's share of raising our
children. When we went to St
Thomas, our first overseas
posting, 1 was working night
and day because impending
legislation had created
opportunities for our corporate
and trust clients and we were on
a tight deadline to get
everything in place on time. We
loved it there and I can assure
you that even though the work
was tough, this was anything
hut a hardship posting.'
From St Thomas, the family
went on to the Channel Islands,
to Jersey, where Van
Rijckevorsel again was involved
in trust. Islands have a special
attraction for him, not least
because he loves sailing. 'It's
something I've done all my life,'
he says. 'Unfortunately, the kids
are not too keen. But you never
know, that may change later.'
The next move couldn't have
been more different. From a
small island to land-locked
Switzerland. 'Again we had
great fun there. Besides a lot of
work, we managed to get in a
lot of skiing as well,' says Van
Rijckevorsel, 'but the kids were
growing up and we feit we had
to make some serious choices
about their education and so
on. In that sense, going "home"
seemed the right option. And
when I was invited to talk to
Rabobank about their trust and
private banking plans, it seemed
the ideal move for us.'
Throughout his career, Van
Rijckevorsel has been involved
in setting up. 'The bank had -
and still has - ambitious plans
for the development of IPB
especially. And because these
were future plans, a chance to
build up the activities without
the limitations of all too rigid
structures, I was really
enthusiastic to join. The
ongoing internationalization
gives you room to innovate, to
initiate structuring of an ever-
expanding organization. What
more could you want?'
The expansion of IPB - over the
past year, its centres of
competence in both Switzerland
and the Far East have grown
dramatically, both in terms of
assets under management and
people - means Van Rijckevorst
tends to spend a lot of time
away from home. 'And when 1
get home, it's always full of
people, especially young people.
The kids have friends in and out
all the time. My wife encourages
it. If they're home, then we
know exactly where they are.
But we also have our own
friends over a lot - a good
dinner with good friends is the
best evening I can imagine.
'If you talk about relaxing in
general, then I suppose I do the
kind of things most people do:
movies, I've already mentioned
sailing. One thing I did recently
was to join a local business
club. When you're away from
home a lot, and especially when
you've recently moved to a new
place, you don't have that many
social contacts locally. So now I
try to get to these meetings
which are very informative, but
we always end up going to
dinner afterwards. That's
probably the part I enjoy most.
Sitting with these guys and
talking about everything and
anything: the state of the
economy, politics, but also very
local issues. It gives you a sense
of community.'
Van Rijckevorsel admits to a
fascination for politics, or
rather for politicians.
'Especially the internal
workings and machinations
behind it. 1 also admit to a love
of what can only be described
as pulp fiction, the Ken
Follet/Wilbur Smith/Jillv
Cooper genre. But if I read
"serious" books, then they are
often biographies of politicians.
What intrigues me is what
drives them, why they put so
much energy into what is
usually a badly-paid job. It's
probably about ego. The
business world is full of egos, as
well, so understanding how
that works, the mechanisms, is
fascinating. How big is my ego?
I think it's relatively low key. I
haven't really thought about it.^
But off the cuff, I'd say that th^
more egos in a room, the
quieter I become. I don't know,
you'd have to ask other people
for that one...'
