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

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