I was delighted to see Rexam announced as the overall winner of the Deals of the Year awards of 2007. Such success demonstrates the ability of the profession to add shareholder value; this puts the treasurer at the centre of the organisation’s financial strategy and this is exactly where we want the ACT’s members to be. We also recognised the importance of treasury skills in a new award for Treasury Team of the Year which was won by Vodafone. We celebrated all the winners of the Deals of the Year awards at an excellent evening in Drapers’ Hall and the ACT is most grateful to Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets for its support. Full details and photos can be seen here.
I have on a number of occasions referred in this update to the stimulus to and opportunity for treasury management when conditions in the financial markets are more volatile and replete with “surprises” such as those we are encountering now. Another aspect of this environment is the advantage that individuals can win by ensuring that their qualifications and training are up-to- date. We believe that our programme of qualifications, in which we have invested so substantially over the last few years, is highly relevant and attractive in today’s market. We are already seeing a good response to our latest qualification, the Certificate in International Treasury Management, with the potential for enrolments in this coming from around the world on the strength of our joint marketing with other treasury associations.
I hope you will by now have received the full programme for our annual conference at the end of April. We have some outstanding and high profile speakers, such as the former President of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, and James Smith, the Chairman of Shell UK. We also have both Andrew Neil and Esther Rantzen running more light-hearted sessions, albeit with a serious purpose. We are continuing the tradition of a sports celebrity speaking at the conference dinner and this year we will be hearing from Alan Hansen. The overall content of the conference offers an outstanding opportunity to remain professionally up-to-date and to participate in the networking that goes on within and around the conference.
Members should have received the election notice and nomination form for our Council elections – the papers were mailed with the 2008 edition of the Directory. Completed nominations must be received by 10.00 on Monday 25 February. We welcome nominations from members across all areas of activity, including both corporate treasurers and those employed in the financial services sector. We do however strongly recommend that members first consider involvement with the ACT through its committees, working groups, regional group network or indeed participation in any other ACT activities, in order to develop an understanding of how we work, our key issues and strategic objectives. For further information about the election process, the responsibilities of Council or to discuss becoming involved in ACT activities, please contact Ria Robinson by email.
One of the issues with which we wrestle within the ACT is the ability to ensure that we understand as thoroughly as possible what members think about the ACT and would like us to do or change in what we do already. We are currently running a programme of focus group discussions facilitated by a consultant, and we have deliberately sought to include non-members as well as members in these groups. At present we are particularly keen to hear from anyone who has a background with a smaller (non-FTSE 100) company and would be willing to participate in a two hour focus group. If you feel able to help please contact Ria Robinson.
