Rabobank New Zealand Leadership team

Bruce is General Manager of Country Banking. He leads a team of 280 banking specialists around the country, who are passionate about the food and agri sector. Bruce grew up on a sheep and beef farm in Wairoa, Northern Hawkes Bay. His banking career began in 2000 when he joined Rabobank as a Finance Officer and transitioned through various customer-focused and leadership roles before his appointment as General Manager Country Banking in 2019.

Bruce holds a Diploma in Agriculture and a Bachelor of Applied Science from Massey University. He has outside interests in both dairy farming and horticulture, which adds to his wealth of experience working in and alongside rural communities.

Hailing from a South Otago sheep and beef farming family, Blake has an LLB, BA (Political Studies) and MBA from Otago University and practised as an environmental/public lawyer before joining Rabobank in 2013. As well as covering various sustainability roles with the bank, Blake has also worked in Rabobank’s global market research team as the New Zealand Animal Proteins analyst.

Before stepping into the Acting CSO role in April 2024, Blake was Head of Sustainable Business Development for Rabobank New Zealand. In that role, Blake contributed towards Rabobank policy submissions to Government on regulations affecting the sector, produced reports and podcasts for Rabobank clients that examined issues linked to sustainable farming, and developed new products and services aimed at supporting clients’ businesses to be more commercially and environmentally sustainable.

Blake’s contributions have provided clients with tools to help them understand and manage increasing environmental, societal and market risk, and to identify opportunities within their own businesses, created by a scarcity of resources and a growing global population.

Craig joined Rabobank in November 2018 in this newly created role to increase Rabobank New Zealand’s local capabilities with respect to government and stakeholder relations, internal communications, and media relations.

Craig’s background and experience is broad. He spent the first part of his career as a financial journalist and business editor and has considerable experience in both corporate and government communications. From 2008, Craig worked in various New Zealand government roles including Senior Press Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, then Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition. His background includes issues management, government and financial communications, along with a strong track record in media management and team leadership.

Mike joined Rabobank in March 2024 and is responsible for leading the Bank’s New Zealand Operations team. He has extensive experience in strategy, delivery and operations to senior levels in large, complex organisations, with a particular focus on leveraging technology. Mike, was previously Executive General Manager – Enterprise Technology at Xero, where he was also co-lead of the Crisis Management Team.

Before joining Xero in 2019, Mike was Director, Student Transformation at Victoria University in Wellington, focusing on digital transformation and contributing to the University’s first long-term digital strategy. Mike has an MBA from Victoria University.