Grobank appoints Bennie as new CEO

Grobank has announced the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer, Bennie van Rooy with effect from 1 July 2019. The appointment is a strong statement that demonstrates the bank’s determination to execute its stated growth strategy, which is aimed at driving the food and agri-business banking, business banking, SME and alliance banking segments of the bank.

Bennie succeeds Spiro Georgopoulos, who oversaw the transition and repositioning of the South African Bank of Athens into Grobank, Bennie brings extensive wealth of experience as a previous Head of Capital and Balance Sheet Management in Group Treasury at Absa Bank, Group Financial Director and CEO of Consumer Finance of the JD Group and more recently, Chief Financial Officer (and Acting CEO) at the State-owned Land Bank, to one of South Africa’s most innovative banks.

Commenting on his appointment, Bennie said that, “My mandate is to support the implementation and expansion of Grobank’s strategy as the premier banking partner across the food and agriculture value chain in South Africa”. At the same time, I am committed to the ongoing growth of our business and alliance banking offerings, which remain core to the future strategy of Grobank.

“It is an exciting time in financial services as well as in the agricultural sectors in our country, and Grobank is set to take advantage of available technology, such as fintech, digital, and agtech among others to support and provide solutions to our current and future clients, while maintaining our close personal relationships with farmers and agri-businesses.”

Van Rooy stated further, Grobank is uniquely positioned to provide solutions, expertise and banking services as a result of the insights gained through our existing clients, alliance and industry relationships. “Combining the existing banking expertise in our business, with the thorough agricultural and food value chain knowledge of our strategic shareholders, creates a unique opportunity to deliver new and innovative solutions to agriculture and other sectors. I am delighted to join the Grobank family and look forward to exploring new opportunities that will make a meaningful difference to our existing and new clients”.

According to Chris Venter, CEO of AFGRI Group Holdings (AGH), a shareholder of Grobank, indicated that, “As shareholders of Grobank that is part of the greater AGH group, we are pleased that Bennie has chosen to be part of the Grobank journey and our mandate to support food and agri-businesses. Bennie is fully committed to our passion of enabling food and job security across the continent. We are privileged to have Bennie on board as his financial acumen, business sense, values and dedication towards each position he has held previously have been of the highest order.”