18 February 2009

Agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank has announced the appointments of Robert Hill Smith and Professor Warwick McKibbin to its Australasian Food & Agribusiness Advisory Board.

This specialist board of agribusiness and broader industry leaders is responsible for advising the Australian and New Zealand arm of Rabobank, the world’s leading food and agribusiness bank, on strategic agribusiness and agricultural issues.

Mr Hill Smith, the proprietor and Managing Director of the Yalumba Wine Company, is one of Australia’s leading wine industry identities.

Professor McKibbin is Professor and Director of the Centre of Applied Macroeconomic Analysis at the Australian National University (ANU) and a renowned authority on climate change.

Rabobank Australia & New Zealand CEO Bruce Dick said it was the bank’s great fortune to have business leaders of the calibre of Mr Hill Smith and Professor McKibbin on its advisory board.

“The advisory board plays an invaluable role in advising Rabobank’s board of directors and senior management on industry issues and activities,” Mr Dick said.

“As one of the country’s most successful wine entrepreneurs, Robert Hill Smith brings the insight and valuable hands-on perspective of running a thriving agribusiness operation. Under Robert’s stewardship, Yalumba Wine Company has emerged as one of Australia’s greatest wine industry success stories.

“Warwick McKibbin brings a wealth of expertise and experience in two of the biggest and most crucial factors impacting the future of agriculture and agribusiness – global economic trends and climate change.”

Robert Hill Smith joined Yalumba in 1970, working in the vintage cellar laboratory and the vineyards. Later he assumed responsibility for exports, mapping an international strategy for the company brands and, as Marketing Manager, began moulding a new fine wine philosophy and brand strategy for the business. He was appointed Managing Director in 1985. A fifth generation descendant of Samuel Smith, who founded Yalumba in 1849, Mr Hill Smith and his brother Sam bought full shareholding in the family company.

Warwick McKibbin is internationally renowned in the field of global economic modelling. He has been a consultant for many international agencies and a range of governments on issues of macroeconomic policy, international trade and finance, greenhouse policy issues, global demographic change and the economic cost of infectious disease.

Professor McKibbin is also Adjunct Professor in the Australia Centre for Economic Research in Health at ANU. He is a member of the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia, a Professorial Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington DC and President of McKibbin Software Group. He was until recently a member of the Australian Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council.

The other members of the Rabobank Australia & New Zealand Advisory Board are:

• Nick Burton Taylor – Principal, Hillgrove Pastoral Company
• Richard Haire – CEO, Queensland Cotton Holdings
• Tom Keene – former Managing Director Grain Corp.
• Doug Rathbone – Managing Director, Nufarm
• Henry van der Heyden – Chairman, Fonterra Cooperative Group and
• John Watson – Chairman, Incitec Pivot.

Rabobank Australia is a part of the international Rabobank Group, the world’s leading specialist in food and agribusiness banking. Rabobank has more than 110 years’ experience providing customised banking and finance solutions to businesses involved in all aspects of food and agribusiness. Rabobank is structured as a cooperative and has a AAA credit rating from Moody’s and Standard & Poor's. Rabobank operates in 43 countries, servicing the needs of more than nine million clients worldwide through a network of more than 1600 offices and branches. Rabobank Australia is one of the country's leading rural lenders and a significant provider of business and corporate banking and financial services to the Australian food and agribusiness sector. The bank has 51 branches throughout Australia.

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