Western Europe: Zalm considers the scale of ABN Amro’s ambition

Illustration: Pete Ellis

The local reputation of ABN Amro’s chairman might surprise those who have not met him. 

At first glance, he looks like any member of a western European elite: grey-haired and besuited. But Gerrit Zalm’s well-publicized 2014 address to his bank’s employees – dressed in full drag and in the guise of a brothel madam – gives a less staid picture.

Euromoney can confirm that Zalm’s office in Amsterdam contains a large portrait of his wife and not a pinball machine.