The Rabo AgriFinance leadership team is committed to agriculture.
John Steeves serves as Head of Rural Business Economics, North America, for Rabobank.
In his role, Steeves is responsible for all aspects of the North America Rural Business and is the North America representative on the Rabobank Global Rural Leadership Team. His focus is on growing the rural business, fostering employee and client engagement, and identifying and managing the risks within the business.
In addition to leading the Rabo AgriFinance business, Steeves is a member of the Rabobank North America Executive Team, which oversees the business and operations of all Rabobank subsidiaries and business units operating in the region to serve the entire food and agribusiness value chain.
Prior to joining Rabobank, Steeves spent 30 years in the financial services industry in Canada with a short stint in Hong Kong. Most recently, he held the position of Executive Vice President for Canadian Western Bank (CWB) – a boutique financial institution with $42 Billion in assets. Prior to CWB, he spent time at both Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and HSBC Bank Canada (HSBC). At CIBC, a large international Canadian-based financial institution with $975 billion in assets, he was a regional executive managing a team that covered mid-market commercial relationships across a diverse spectrum of the economy including numerous syndications and a large agricultural portfolio.
Steeves is originally from Eastern Canada and is a graduate of Saint Mary’s University with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in finance and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. Outside of work, he is active in the community and has been a long-time volunteer for numerous organizations including Junior Achievement and Scouts Canada. He’s also an avid cyclist and golfer.
Chris Olson serves as the Head of Rural, U.S. for Rabo AgriFinance.
In his role as General Manager, Chris manages the U.S. rural Direct Lending operations. He has ownership of the entire direct lending process at Rabo AgriFinance from origination through closing and leads the organization’s growth initiatives.
Olson joined Ag Services of America as a Credit Manager in 1998. He continued to serve in various relationship management roles, eventually transitioning into Area Account Manager just prior to the acquisition of the company by Rabobank. While with Rabo AgriFinance, Olson has had roles as Assistant Vice President Regional Coordinator, Regional Vice President, and Managing Director before accepting the role of General Manager in March of 2019.
Olson is a native of Iowa and has been involved in agriculture his entire life. He was raised on a farm in Grinnell, Iowa, and graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a Bachelor of Science in finance. Outside of work, Olson is actively involved with his two children and their various activities.
Van Dewey serves as Head of Major Agricultural Clients for Rabo AgriFinance.
Van Dewey oversees the Customer Relationship Management teams serving Rabo AgriFinance’s largest agriculture clients across the U.S. These teams bring extensive industry knowledge and provide specialized service to the largest operations in the animal protein, row crop, dairy, fruit, tree nut and other crop sectors across the country as well as Rabo AgriFinance’s agribusiness clients.
Actively involved with his family farm in Central Kansas, Dewey has over 30 years of agricultural lending experience. In 2004, Van opened one of the first Rabo AgriFinance offices, located in Wichita, Kansas, and grew the Kansas portfolio to one of the company’s largest markets. Following a promotion to Team Leader in 2005, he was further promoted to Regional Vice President in 2007, to Managing Director in 2010 and to General Manager in 2016.
Prior to his role at Rabo AgriFinance, Dewey held other roles in agricultural lending, with more than 15 years of Farm Credit Services experience managing local offices as well as experience at US Bank’s Agribusiness Group.
Van holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from Kansas State University.