#211: Stefaan Decraene – CEO of Rabobank – simplifying a ‘Sleeping Beauty’, AI, agro, AML, taking risks and staying humble

Jeroen Broekema speaks with Stefaan Decraene about his first years at Rabobank and the decisions he made after arriving in Utrecht. Decraene talks about telling people to leave meetings, building his own management team and trying to bring more speed into the bank. The conversation also covers AI, agro and AML, Rabobank’s return to professional cycling, taking risks and staying humble.

Stefaan Decraene has served as Chair of Rabobank’s Managing Board since January 2023, becoming the first non-Dutch person to lead the bank. In this role, he heads an international cooperative bank with around 48,000 employees across 34 countries.

Decraene began his career in 1988 at Bacob Bank, a Belgian cooperative bank that became Artesia, where he worked in investment banking and securities before becoming Chair of Artesia Securities and subsequently Chair of Bank Artesia Nederland. He then held several senior positions at Dexia. In 2006, he became Chair of Dexia Bank Belgium.

He also took on group-level responsibility for retail and commercial banking in Belgium, Turkey, Slovakia and Luxembourg. In 2011, Decraene joined BNP Paribas. Based in Paris, he spent the next 11 years on the Group’s Executive Committee, where he was responsible for its international retail banking activities.

Since taking the helm at Rabobank, Decraene has overseen an internal reorganisation and a period of strong financial performance. In 2024, Rabobank reported a record net profit of €5.2 billion and close to €5 billion again in 2025. In 2026, the bank announced plans to invest up to €2 billion in data, technology and artificial intelligence over the next three years.

Decraene studied political, social and economic sciences at the University of Brussels and later earned a master’s degree in economics from KU Leuven. He is 61 years old and is married to Catherine. They have two sons, and he is also a grandfather. During the week, he lives in Amsterdam. At weekends, he returns home to Bruges, Belgium.

 

Book mentioned in this episode: Over welvaart by Bart De Wever

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Previous guests on the Leaders in Finance Podcast include Klaas Knot (former President of DNB), Frank Elderson (Member of the Executive Board of the ECB), Gerrit Zalm (former Minister of Finance and former CEO of ABN AMRO), Ingrid de Swart (Member of the Executive Board of a.s.r.), Pinar Abay (Member of the Management Board of ING and Head of Retail Banking), Robert Swaak (former CEO of ABN AMRO), Saul van Beurden (CEO of Consumer, Small & Business Banking at Wells Fargo), David Knibbe (CEO of NN Group), Janine Vos (Member of the Managing Board of Rabobank), Nadine Klokke (CEO …