Moving On...

Over the years I have read hundreds of farewell mails by colleagues who were leaving the bank, and now, finally, it’s my turn. 28th February was formally my last day in the office at ABN AMRO.

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I joined the bank on March 1st 1994 to run the DCM business, based on the Foppingadreef in Amsterdam, and was fortunate enough to help lead the international expansion of our fixed income operations, building a global new issues team with colleagues in New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and all major European cities. From 1997 to 1999 I managed our overall Emerging Markets business, uniting central fixed income trading with local treasury expertise, and building research and origination to complement the sales and trading strengths.

In 2000 I moved across from Global Markets to become an FI Senior Banker and helped establish fully-fledged financial institutions client coverage as we know it now. In the years that followed I developed a dual responsibility, as both global head of the insurance and asset manager team and also head of Dutch FI client coverage. With hindsight, this was truly a golden period of benign markets, high growth, high ambition levels and considerable commercial success.

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After a five year period at RBS from 2008 to 2013, I returned to (new) ABN AMRO in Jan 2014 to manage the Financial Institutions & Real Estate businesses. My desire was to play a an enthusiastic and energetic role in rebuilding the bank’s overall CIB franchise, and in particular to put us back on the map around Europe, specifically in London, Paris and Frankfurt. I am proud that, despite economic and regulatory conditions which have been far tougher than during the 90’s and 00’s, we have built up that Northern European revenue stream strongly from a low base, created a more diverse and robust FI business, and also hired a number of very high quality coverage bankers who have gone on to be successful and influential elsewhere within the bank.

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Indeed, as I look back, it is the people whom I will remember far more fondly than the commercial successes or the occasional headwinds. It has been an absolute privilege to work alongside so many talented, hard-working, insightful and supportive colleagues. To those who have been my mentors and supporters: thank you for all your wise words and kindness! And to those whom I have hired and/or mentored: thank you for believing in me; keep up the good work, and I wish you all the success in the world!

And finally, to all those clients who were kind enough to trust me with their business, from M&A mandates and IPO's, to debt issuance and securitizations, to lending, hedging, transaction banking and clearing and custody, thank you for your wholehearted support and for your friendship. I very much hope that we will continue to stay close and to do business together.