Rabobank New Zealand announces new board appointment

Rabobank New Zealand announces new board appointment

Rabobank New Zealand has announced the appointment of Jillian Segal AM to its board of directors.

Ms Segal, a respected Australian company director with extensive regulatory and legal experience, joins the boards of Rabobank New Zealand Limited, as well as Rabobank Australia & New Zealand Group’s other major operating entities – Rabobank Australia Limited and Rabo Australia Limited.

Announcing the appointment, Rabobank’s Australia & New Zealand chairman Sir Henry van der Heyden said Ms Segal’s extensive board experience across the private and public sectors, including in financial services – coupled with a career-long background in governance and law – made her an “ideal fit” for Rabobank’s New Zealand and Australian boards.

“We are truly delighted to have Jillian join the Rabobank boards,” he said. “She is an accomplished and highly-regarded director, and sought-after for her expertise in business, governance, banking, financial regulation and education. We are very pleased Jillian will now bring this expertise to Rabobank, as the bank further grows and develops in New Zealand and Australia’s burgeoning agricultural sector.”

Rabobank New Zealand is one of New Zealand’s largest agricultural lenders and a major provider of corporate and business banking services to the country’s food and agribusiness sector. The bank also runs online retail savings and deposits business RaboDirect.

Ms Segal previously served as a commissioner and later deputy chair at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and as a director of ASX Limited and National Australia Bank Limited, as well as board chair of the Australian Banking Industry Ombudsman, among a number of other board positions.

She currently holds several non-executive positions, including deputy chancellor of UNSW Australia, chair of the General Sir John Monash Foundation and the AustraliaIsrael Chamber of Commerce (NSW), directorships with the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Grattan Institute and Trustee of the Sydney Opera House Trust.

Ms Segal was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2005 for services to business law, particularly in the areas of financial services reform and market regulation, and awarded a Centenary Medal in 2003 for services to society through business leadership. Ms Segal holds a BA LL.B from the University of New South Wales and has a Masters of Laws from Harvard Law School.

Ms Segal takes the seat on the Rabobank New Zealand and Australian boards left vacant by retiring former Rabobank Australian chairman Bill Gurry.

In addition to chairman Sir Henry van der Heyden, Ms Segal joins other directors of Rabobank Australia & New Zealand – Andy Borland, Anne Brennan, Berry Marttin, Sander Pruijs, Geerten Battjes and Peter Knoblanche (managing director Rabobank Australia & New Zealand Group and CEO Rabobank Australia).