He discovered that cliënt value is not the poor relation of shareholder value, but a characteristic that clearly disting Rabobank jrom other financial institutions 9 CEO Piet Moerland: 11 i ri Bert Heemskerk had many years experience in the banking industry when he transferred to Rabobank in 2002. His first position was with the former AMRO Bank in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1969. Three years later he was appointed regional manager for Europe and Japan. He opened offices in Tokyo, Dubai, Peking and the United States, and worked in London for three years. Having subsequently spent another twelve years as chairman of the Dutch private bank Van Lanschot, Heemskerk was asked to join Rabobank in 2002 by Lense Koopmans, chairman of the bank's supervisory board; Heemskerk had always regarded this as the crowning glory of his career. People who had the privilege of working with him considered him to be a born leader. Heemskerk himself put that quality down to his father, an entrepreneur who began a shipbuilding yard in the 1920s with credit provided by the Cooperative Central Farmers' Credit Bank, or Boerenleenbank, one of Rabobank's predecessors. He grew up in a Catholic family of eight children and dreamed of becoming a priest. It was for this reason that he decided to study theology and philosophy at institutions including the University of Tübingen in Germany, undertheauspicesof Joseph Ratzinger, the current Pope Benedict XVI. Instead of joining the clergy, however, he became a secondary school teacher of religious instruction. Shortly afterwards, he decided to study economics and opted for a career in the banking industry. According to current Rabobank CEO Piet Moerland, Heemskerk proved himself to be a board member with a strong cooperative disposition. "To his surprise, he discovered that cooperative banking really does exist, and that cliënt value is not the poor relation of shareholder value, but a characteristic that clearly distinguishes Rabobank from other financial institutions." The merger between Rabobank subsidiary Interpolis with Achmea, in which Rabobank received a significant share of the insurance conglomerate Eureko, was one of Heemskerk's most important achievements. Rabobank's ambition to present itself as a global F&A bank also took shape under his supervision as a result of numerous investments and acquisitions. Heemskerk was a frontrunner in the field of sustainability and social involvement. He was at the forefront of Rabo Development, which develops promising rural banks in Asia, Africa and Latin America. He was also highly enthusiastic about the work of the Rabobank Foundation, which is active in developing countries in the field of microfinancing. The worldwide financial crisis broke out in 2007, the year that Heemskerk had intended to retire. Rabobank asked him to stay on for a short time due to the seriousness of the crisis. He said that he would be more than happy to do so, "...in order to keep our ship out of troubled waters." On his retirement in 2009, Heemskerk looked back on this hectic period and reconfirmed his belief in the strength of the cooperative Rabobank. During his leaving ceremony he said: "It is possible for our cooperative to make a faux pas, but it cannot lose its way completely thanks to the built-in checks and balances. Be careful with that structure!" Only a very small group of people at Rabobank knew that Heemskerk was seriously ill. He had asked his colleagues to be discreet with the knowledge. Piet Moerland: "Bert wanted us to remember him as the vital and strong personality he was when he was working with us. That is what we have done and what we will continue to do." Bert Heemskerk died near to the town on the North Sea coast where he had been born 67 years earlier and where he had been building a new family home. He leaves behind his wife and their eight children. issue 27 R] WORLD

Rabobank Bronnenarchief

blad 'RI World' (EN) | 2011 | | pagina 5