F inspired by the fact that we're going
for the gold medat— that we want
to be the leader in the Netherlands,
and the leader in global F&A business
ES Who is Lex Kloosterman?
S What are your immediate focus points?
0 What do you think of Rabobank's aim
of becoming the global F&A bank?
A"After graduating from law school and completing my military
service, I began my career at what was then the ABN Bank
in 1983, working at the money desk in New York. I worked
there for two years, and then moved to Singapore where I was
responsible for ABN's corporate banking activities. I moved back
to work in the Netherlands between 1989 and 1992, which
was the time when the ABN and AMRO banks merged to form
ABN AMRO. My next assignment was to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil,
where I worked for ABN AMRO affïliate Banco Holandes Unido,
and had the good fortune to become president of the bank.
This was a very challenging period in banking terms, with Brazil's
daily inflation rate at a staggering 3.5 percent! Aftertwo years in
Brazil, I moved to Chicago to lead the North American activities
of ABN AMRO, before returning once again to the Netherlands.
I then moved back to Brazil to become president of Banco
Real and chief executive of ABN AMRO in Latin America. I left
ABN AMRO in 2006, to take a position on the executive board
at Fortis, where I was involved in the takeover of my previous
employer, ABN AMRO. In 2008, after the acquisition story had run
lts course, I left Fortis and spent the next 9 months working on
some of my passions: the Concertgebouw - a famous concert
hall in Amsterdam - where l'm the treasurer of the fund, and
with a charity thatfocuses on the less-privileged in Amsterdam.
I am married with three children. My wife is a philosophy
teacher; my two daughters live and work in Paris, while my son
is a student in Amsterdam."
our FAR research, and where we have access to the boardroom.
Once we have achieved that goal, we can utilise our knowledge
and expertise all the way from 'the kitchen table to the board room'.'
A"My initial aim is to take stock of our cliënt portfolio, and
analyse Rabobank's role right across that portfolio. Then, with
the help of the M&A team, the FAR team and our regions, I want
to look into which sectors we should focus on, both regionally
and globally. Once we have a fïrm grip on those sectors, we will
identify, with the help of the regions, which bankers we intend
to nominate to take the lead in dealing with our key clients in
the regions and, of course, globally. Essentially we are looking
for clarity within the organisational model, and we are trying
to find a disciplined approach towards dealing with our clients,
so that we have both a clear sector strategy and a very clear
client-specific strategy. Then, based around that client-specific
strategy, our key banking staff need to be firmly aligned with
our product colleagues: in other words, our M&A, GFM, DLL,
Robeco and other product groups within the bank. If we
follow this disciplined approach towards developing cliënt
opportunities within each of our key sectors, we will see clear
initial gains within the first one or two years.
Of course, that's just the low hanging fruit. At the same time,
I think the strategie repositioning of Rabobank as the leading
F&A bank involves looking for the best method to gain access to
the boardroom. We already know that one of the most effective
A "When Sipko Schat asked me to join Rabobank, I was inspired
by the fact that we're going for the gold medal - that we want
to be the leader in the Netherlands, and the leader in global F&A
business. In essence, what we are aiming to achieve is to further
build on the wonderful position that Rabobank has created
within both The Netherlands and the F&A sector. There is a
real perception that we're already the leading bank within the
F&A domain, but the challenge now is to turn that perception
into reality. Our next step is to focus on identifying the sectors
we're leading in globally, which will then constitute our global
platform. F&A is a broadly defined space, so we need to be
precise about where we want to win and target our choices in
order to excel. We want to be able to target those sectors and
clients where we already have underlying knowledge through
ways to gain access is through our research, but the challenge
is to monetise that research and translate the research and
boardroom access into deal flow. A great example is the recent
takeover of Pilgrim's Pride. The company, a leading chicken
producer in the United States, was hit quite hard by the financial
crisis, and Rabobank NA helped them to restructure financially
(through a DIP financing). A few months later, Rabobank
together with its M&A partner, Rothschild, advised Brazilian fïrm
JBS SA on its takeover of Pilgrim's Pride, creating one of the
world's leading animal protein companies. That is something
that I think we will be much closer to achieving - in terms
of ambition level - once we have created these internal
communities of knowledge. What gives me real joy is creating
winning teams, and I think it's crucial that we build a team that
works towards producing a winning position for both our
clients and the bank."a
ISSUE 22 JANUARV
THE WORD 23
