Rabobank International is expanding its trade and commodity finance (TCF) activities worldwide by hiring new staff. Jasper van Schaik, Kareen Drr and Sema Zeyneloglu are the latest additions to the TCF team.

Van Schaik joimns in July and will be responsible for the agri-commodities business in Europe including the Ownership-Based Lending (OBL) activities. He will report directly to Karel Valken, global head of agri-commodities. Van Schaik has been active in the agri-commodities sector since 1998, when he joined Fortis and was ultimately responsible for the team in Amsterdam.

Kareen Drr joins as a senior relationship manager for the agri-commodities team and she will report to Van Schaik. Drr has been active in this sector for the last seven years at ING in Rotterdam.

As mentioned in the May/June issue of GTR, Sema Zeyneloglu joins Rabobank in July from Garanti Bank International as global head, financial institutions, emerging markets, reporting to Diane Boogaard, global head of TCF.

She will be responsible for further strengthening relationship management activities towards financial institutions and Rabobank’s risk distribution activities. Zeyneloglu has built an impressive track record in the commodities markets and is a board member for the International Forfaiting Association (IFA).

Mital Patel joins Rabobank at the beginning of August as head of structured commodity finance, metals and minerals in London. He will report to Joep Kockmann, who is global head of metals and minerals. Patel will be responsible for developing and building the structured commodity finance portfolio in the EEMEA countries (Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa). He joins from KBC in London, where he spent three years on the metals and mining desk under Mike Marnell. Paul Lodwick left KBC for Rabobank earlier this year.