Myürstpnority is
to ficus on the people,
by getting to know
my colleagues and
understanding our
clients and their needs
HWho is Thos Gieskes?
S What is your background at Rabobank?
S What are your first impressions of
Australia and New Zealand compared
to your time in Chile?
El What are your immediate priorities?
A "Thos Gieskes is a 47-year-old Dutch man, who has worked
with Rabobank for 20 years. I have three children, ranging in
age from eight to 18. All three of them are with us in Australia,
which l'm pleased about, as family is very important to me.
They are all continuing their education here, so life has already
started to settle in our adopted country. I originally trained as
a development economist (which involves specialising in an
area of economics designed to understand and strengthen the
economie development of less developed countries), although
my wife and I decided early on in my career that pursuing
a profession that typically involves working in very remote
countries - although undoubtedly interesting - might not be
ideal for raising a family. I then applied to Rabobank, and there
was an instant connection."
A "I joined Rabobank in 1990 and spent my first 18 months
as a trainee. This was just prior to the introduction of group
traineeships, so I was one of the last individual trainees within
the bank. I spent time as an intern in various departments,
which gave me a solid grounding in our activities. In fact, when
I return to Utrecht today I still see and talk with colleagues who
I worked with, and learned from, during that period. I then
moved into the international division, where I was able to utilise
my international knowledge and language abilities. My first
role was as an area manager for Latin America, which involved
supporting our local country offices by maintaining relationships
with local banks, or providing them with assistance on funding
issues. For the countries where we didn't have a local office,
we would act as the relationship manager for any international
clients that wanted to do business with us. It was an interesting
period, with a great deal of travel, which at that point in my
career I relished. After around three years in that role I wanted
to develop my skills as a banker, so I began working as an
account manager with F&A clients in the Netherlands - some
of the large dairy companies, for example. From there I became
head of the Commodity Finance group, and then head of F&A
Relationship Management. This was an interesting position
and gave me the chance to learn about the bank and work on
my management abilities, as the organisation grew. Then my
negotiations with Rabobank to take on a foreign assignment
became serious. The bank and I had a few fruitless attempts to
find the right international assignments for me over the years,
but then the opportunity arose to go to Chile, and this proved
to be a wonderful move. During my time as CEO of Rabobank
Chile we took over another bank, which was a unique oppor
tunity for me to work on an acquisition. This also meant that we
were able to stay a few more years in Chile, which was gratifying."
A "My first impression is that the organisation here is probably
the most developed and mature part of our international retail
network. This is not surprising, given the bank's growth in
Australia and New Zealand over the past two decades, l'm also
impressed bythe level of integration of the Primary Industry
Bank of Australia (PIBA), which we bought in the 1990s. This
is the model that Chile is working towards and will reach
in the future. On a physical level, Chile's tremendous range
of topographies and landscapes, its iow population density
and its mineral wealth are features it shares with Australia and
New Zealand. All three countries rely on exports to drive their
economy, many of them in the F&A sector, which of course
is the reason we're present. The Chileans have successfully
copied the New Zealanders with the export of the Kiwi fruit and
Sauvignon Blanc wines, for example. Another sector that links
Chile and New Zealand is dairy, and we've seen and supported
a number of farmers from New Zealand who have invested in
farms in Chile."
A "The first thing that I need to focus on is the people, by
getting to know my colleagues and understanding our clients
and their needs. In the process lil get to know the bank better,
and l'll get a feel for the country. My intuition tells me that
the fundamentais are okay. Another priority high on my list is
working to align the organisation, so that we come into better
contact with the rest of Rabobank. I don't think that the rest
of the world is fuily aware of what's happening in this region -
and I want to change that. I want to share our experiences in
order to stimulate or assist other parts of the bank with their
development. For example, I can see issues in Chile that could
be resolved, or could be resolved faster, if we make a connection
with the experiences of Australia and New Zealand. Of course,
I don't think it's a one-way street. There is a lot that we can learn,
but we need a framework in place to facilitate the sharing of
knowledge and that also means having the right people in place
to do that. Another important priority is to work on servicing
our Dutch and international customers. This is something that's
been evolving over the past couple of years, but our aim is to
source any business here that is connected to our clients
based in the Netherlands. For example, if we have clients in
the Netherlands doing business here, or thinking of doing
business here, then it is simply not acceptable to me.if we do
not at least make a serious attempt to service them locally."
ISSUE 23 MAY 2010 RI WORLD 25