The bank poached Zoutendijk for this newly created position from Australia's Westpac Bank, where she was group general manager of corporate and institutional banking. She will join Standard Chartered in Singapore, but will transfer to Hong Kong early next year.
Zoutendijk will be responsible for the assessment of the competitive environment as well as the evaluation of acquisition and alliance opportunities across Asia. Working closely with the bankÆs client relationship team, she will also deal with major clients across the region to enhance the bankÆs corporate and institutional client relationships.
She will report to Mike Rees, the bankÆs chief executive officer of wholesale banking, and Kai Nargolwala, group executive director.
ôThe competitive landscape for wholesale banking is very fluid and dynamic and we need to strengthen our ability to accurately and quickly identify strategic opportunities to embed competitive advantage in our key markets. OlgaÆs global experience means she is ideally placed to drive this for the bank,ö says Rees.
ôGiven the bankÆs ambition to be a top three provider for clients across all core markets, there is a real necessity to evaluate strategic opportunities for growth. I am looking forward to driving this strategic focus and offering the bankÆs corporate and institutional clients a wide range of innovative products and services,ö says Zoutendijk.
Zoutendijk joined Westpac in 2001, heading up all business and consumer product divisions in the retail bank. The past four years she has spent with the wholesale bank, overseeing debt capital markets, client relationships, corporate foreign exchange and derivatives and transactional banking divisions. Under her leadership, Westpac has achieved a number one position with corporate and institutional clients in Australia.
Prior to that, she spent over 20 years working with ABN AMRO Bank, holding various senior executive posts in the wholesale bank in New York, Sydney, Dublin and Lisbon.
Standard Chartered derives over 90% of its profits from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. In the release, the bank notes that ZoutendijkÆs appointment shows its intention to build a strategic oversight capability in wholesale banking across products, services and regions. This oversight capability will help it focus on strategy, client and service issues, while at the same time strengthening day-to-day management and execution of the business.
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