Jacques Kemp
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[edit] Snapshot
Jacques Kemp started his career with ING in 1974. Currently CEO of Insurance Asia Pacific, Jacques Kemp has a strong track record of developing markets and ideas. Jacques was involved in setting up the Los Angeles office in 1982 and from 1984 to 1990 he was the General Manager in Brazil. He repatriated to ING head office in Amsterdam to take up the position of General Manager of ING Bank International to establish the Central & Eastern European network. After the merger of and integration with Barings, Jacques became Member of the Executive Committee and in that capacity he was responsible for the General Banking activities worldwide. His latest position was Global Head E-Business for ING Group responsible for initiating and co-ordinating ING’s strategy on web-enabling integrated financial services on a world-wide basis.
Jacques graduated from Higher Economic School in Rotterdam. He holds a MBA degree from University of Chicago.
Jacques has a corporate blog under the name of My cup of cha] and as such he is the first CEO in the financial services industry from a Fortune 500 company having one.
[edit] History
[edit] Online, direct, internet, e-mail payments ...
In 1993 ING Bank International started with a ‘Vision 1997” project to discuss the future of the industry. By March 1995, when the Internet was in its embryonic-corporate stage, ING International was one of the first emerging markets banks with a strong web presence.
In a memo dated 28 July 1994, Kemp brought new distribution channels as a concept for direct sales to the attention of the Executive Committee. This was further discussed with Hans Verkoren who would gain fame a decade later with the highly successful ING Direct presence in seven countries worldwide.
In the meantime ING had gained experience with the Internet in a way no financial company had. ING had set up its own Internet Service Provider (Freeler) which was sold to KPN early 2005 and it operates various financial auction sites in the Dutch market.
Quickly to grasp the concept of email payments Jacques Kemp, by the end 1990s early 2000s as Global Head e-Business, was responsible for ING’s investment in PayPal – a project that produced a new global financial payment paradigm. Although later bought out by eBay, ING as only main bank continued to invest in email payments and entered the Dutch market early 2000s with Way2Pay, ING’s own email payment system. Although this business is phased out, as on the Dutch market more viable options for payments exist, ING proved to be a leader, with the luxury of a leader to decide on phasing out, and with the immediate capacity to start-up when market conditions would favor such a move.
[edit] From LDCs to Emerging Markets ...
Up until the end of the 1980s and early 1990s the non-OECD countries were generally called Third World countries or Less Developed Countries (LDCs). This was at the time that the major US and Japanese banks had pumped more money in these countries than had appeared to be economically justifiable - and most banks had to retreat. The connotation around LDCs was, also outside the banking industry, utterly negative.
ING's Gerrit Tammes, however, decided on his gut feeling to plow right into South America, eying Brazil, during the Latin debt crisis (see Why NMB Loves Debt Crisis - 1990. The Brazilian government had not issued a license to any foreign bank for decades but Tammes purchased a bankrupt Urugyuan bank with a Brazilian branch for one peso; and got his Brazilian banking license worth US$40 million. ("Everyone was Afraid" Forbes, September 9, 1996).
The Brazilian branch was headed by Jacques Kemp and ING quickly made fame by creatively trading assets. A famous transaction was organized around the soccer player Romario da Souza Faria whose price was set at US$4 million. PSV Eindhoven, only willing to pay US$3 million, hired ING who worked on buying in the open market US$3 million with face value of US$4 million. They turned the debt over to the Brazilian government who cleared the books with US$4 million and Romario was swapped.
Under Kemp's later directorship of all international operations of the ING Bank (called NMB Bank until the merger in 1991 with Holland's largest insurance company Nationale Nederlanden) successes mounted up in the early 1990s. ING Bank had become active in all South American countries except Bolivia and had expanded via East- and Central Europe into exotically risky places like Vladivostok and North Korea.
Keeping it simple, often by trading LDC debt from hotel rooms, the status quo of perception of banking in and with LDCs gradually changed. When Kemp came across the word 'emerging countries' in a World Bank report he seized the opportunity to frame ING within this more positively loaded wording and he more or less coined the term Emerging markets when with a high profile of internal and external campaigning ING was put on the map as "the bank that specializes in doing business in and with "Emerging Markets". By 1993/94 the financial press, competitors and CEOs of major multinationals were now mostly referring to Emerging Markets instead of LDCs.
As ING Bank Netherlands was not doing well at that time the ING International activities were important for survival. ING bank International had created a new paradigm in which it, being the creator, could run a profitable business.
[edit] Moving into Asia ...
Introducing TPE to the Asia Pacific region, a framework to coordinate, streamline and manage largely diverse entities in the Asia Pacific region, Jacques Kemp's bold leadership in Asia Pacific continues to create benefits to ING as is expected from actions like the 2005 deal with Bank of Beijing.
On 10 March 2006, the Dutch Business Association of Hong Kong bestowed the title of “Business Person of the Year” on Jacques Kemp, for his work as CEO of Insurance Asia Pacific in driving success at ING’s 24 insurance and asset management businesses across Asia Pacific.
In particular, the trade & commerce organization singled out his work in Greater China including his active involvement in ING’s acquisition of a 19.9% stake in Bank of Beijing, which attracted significant stakeholder interest and helped increase ING Group’s brand value. Other efforts praised included developing ING’s e-Business activities, which include the regional knowledge management portal, TPEX, designed around Jacques Kemp’s management model, Towards Performance Excellence (TPE).
