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Naresh has spent 30 years in a variety of treasury roles spanning industry and advisory firms. At PwC he was the UK Lead for Cash Management and Payments where he helped lead the firm’s work on payments, Brexit, treasury controls, Blockchain, operational resilience and target operating model design and implementation. He won an Innovation award for his proposition around mobile payments. Prior to PwC, Naresh spent almost 20 years in industry across a range of organisations including BP, Heron Property, Cable and Wireless and Fujitsu taking on roles such as analyst, dealer and treasurer.
Sarah has extensive corporate experience with over two decades in industry working in a wide range of finance and treasury roles with companies including Cadbury and Whitbread. A qualified accountant, she now spends her time applying her insights to practical use, enabling others to understand how the corporate financial world works and the relevance of developments in financial markets on their day-to-day activities. She is an Associate Member of the ACT.
Karen Braithwaite is Managing Director, Global Head – Transaction Banking at Barclays. Her responsibilities include payments and cash management; trade and working capital; and digital channels across product, sales, and client management. She leads teams that serve clients around the world, covering corporates, financial institutions, non-bank financial institutions and governments. She is also a member of the Corporate Banking Executive Forum.
Karen has over 30 years’ banking experience. Prior to joining Barclays in late 2018, she spent 21 years at BNY Mellon, most recently as Managing Director, Global Head - Product Management, Treasury Services. Other roles included global leadership of client on-boarding, servicing, quality programmes and banking operations across custody, markets and treasury services. Karen began her financial services career at Williams & Glyn’s Bank and S.G Warburg & Co.
Karen is passionate about diversity and inclusion (D&I) and has a proven track record of identifying, hiring and nurturing talent. She’s the executive sponsor for Corporate Banking’s multigenerational D&I initiative, which supports colleagues through the varied stages of their lives and careers at Barclays.
Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, travelling and walking.
Kevin is Co-founder and CEO of London-based financial technology company, TreasurySpring. He was previously a Partner and Head of Short-dated Investments at AgFe, a London-based fixed income asset manager that he and his TreasurySpring Co-founders joined in 2013 after selling it their first business, Autumn Capital Partners. Autumn Capital was an FCA-regulated fixed income advisory firm focused on the cash management sector. Kevin started his career in 2002 as a corporate finance lawyer with leading international law
firm, Weil before moving on to PCM, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund in 2006. At PCM, Kevin was responsible for structuring and managing short-dated fixed income portfolios, together with his TreasurySpring co-founders. Kevin was named as one of Global Custodian's "30 to Shape the Future" in 2019.
Tariq Kazi is Head of Treasury at Optivo, a housing association that owns and manages 45,000 homes for social and affordable rent and low cost home ownership. He is also board member and Finance Committee chair of Stonewater, a 32,000 homes housing association. Tariq brings two decades of private sector experience into his current roles, mostly in the corporate banking sector. The housing association sector looks to the private sector for hints and tips while digitalising its business model.
Sat Khuntia manages the transactional FX sales for Barclays globally and is based in London. He has deep experience in the areas of payments, FX and digital innovation. In his current role, he leads a global team which consults with corporate clients to help them effectively manage their cross-currency payment flows and optimize the FX risks involved in their global eCommerce channels. He is an MBA from London Business School and Mechanical Engineer from NIT, India.
Jeremy was appointed Group Treasurer at Novuna in November 2007, following a career in Treasury and Financial Control and management at Unilever and Nestle in the UK and the US. Jeremy is an FCCA and has been a member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers since 1995.
Novuna is the new brand name for Mitsubishi HC Capital UK PLC – formerly known as Hitachi Capital UK.
Tom Leitch joins Bottomline Technologies as the Director of Sales and Business Development for Treasury as part of its combination with TreasuryXpress where Tom served as Chief Operating Officer. With a background deeply rooted in the treasury and financial industry, Tom provides an extensive understanding of the challenges and objectives of treasury departments around the globe.
Prior to joining TreasuryXpress, Tom spent four years with the Association for Financial Professionals. Tom also served as the Head of Sales for GTNews, now known as Global Treasurer, a leading knowledge resource for treasury professionals worldwide.
Fabrice Montagné is Chief UK Economist at Barclays. Previously, he was a senior European economist responsible for French, Greek and euro area macroeconomics. Mr. Montagné joined Barclays in January 2012 from the Dutch Central Bank where he was responsible for balance sheet, asset/liability management and strategic asset allocation decisions in the Financial Market division. Prior to that, he worked at the French Treasury and Fonds de Reserves pour les Retraites. Mr. Montagné graduated from Ecole Polytechnique, has an MSc in Economics and Statistics from ENSAE, and an MSc in Economic Analysis and Policy from the Paris School of Economics.
Christof is Head of Treasury at the John Lewis Partnership in London. Prior to that, he was Global Group Treasurer at Willis Towers Watson plc based in London from 2010 – December 2018. In this role, Christof led Treasury as well as the insurance function.
Other career stations include Head of Treasury at Fiberweb plc, leading corporate treasury as well as risk management, Group Treasury Manager at Novar plc, where he re-engineered the treasury function, and European Treasurer at Kellogg’s, having set up the European Treasury Centre. He was also Group Treasurer at International Personal Finance plc in 2019/20
Christof holds a dual degree in European Finance and Accounting, and an MBA from Manchester Business School. He qualified with the Association of Corporate Treasurers.
John Lewis plc was the winner of TMI’s 2021 Treasury4Good Awards for Best Sustainable Finance under Christof’s leadership and were shortlisted in the 2021 ACT Deals of the Year Awards in the ESG category.
Martin Runow is the Global Head of Payments and Digital at Barclays Corporate Bank. Martin has a significant breadth of transaction banking experience and joined us from Deutsche Bank in 2019. During his 26 years at Deutsche, he held multiple global and regional client and product-related transaction banking and corporate banking roles – among them cash management leadership roles based in New York, Zurich and Frankfurt. He leads a global team of product managers and client experience professionals that deliver payments, transactional FX and digital solutions to our corporate and institutional clients across all segments and geographies.
Martin believes in a client-centric, front-to-back approach to developing our digital channels and payment solutions that delivers a consistent, modern and secure client experience to our different client segments across the globe.
Bente joined Rentokil Initial plc in December 2015, where she is responsible for all treasury and financing activities of the group.
Prior to joining Rentokil she has held various senior Treasury positions in Ceona, Virgin Management & Acergy.
She is a fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers and a fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.
Caroline Stockmann has been Chief Executive of the Association of Corporate Treasurers since February 2017.
Prior to that Caroline held the position of Chief Financial Officer at The British Council, the UK’s largest charity, and before that at Save the Children International. She has 25 years’ experience in senior finance, commercial and strategic posts at a number of commercial organisations including Novartis Pharmaceuticals (Switzerland), Cadbury Schweppes, Granada plc and Unilever/ Bestfoods (Thailand, Netherlands and UK). Much of her working life has been spent overseas.
Caroline trained with KPMG and is a Fellow (FCA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW). She has an ICAEW Diploma in Charity Accounting and has filled numerous roles on boards over the years, some current roles including being a member of the Finance and Investment Committee of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Deputy Chair of the European Association of Corporate Treasurers and the International Group of Treasury Associations, as well as President of the National Association of Corporate Treasurers (US). Caroline is a linguist, musician, trained coach and passionate bell ringer, and is married with two children.
James joined the ACT Policy & Technical team in September 2019 with 30 years’ experience of international finance, most recently within Group Treasury of Royal Dutch Shell plc as Head of Regulatory Affairs, Head of Compliance and Controller of Group Pensions. James is a qualified accountant (ACMA/CGMA), with a degree in Law & Politics, who has worked in UK, Africa, South America & Middle East. He has been CFO/Finance Manager of various entities in the energy, commodities, technology and not for profit sectors. James enjoys engaging with stakeholders and has contributed to many working groups, including the FSB’s Market Participants Group on reforming interest rate benchmarks.
The ACT Cash Management Conference will return as a live event on 29 March 2022 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.
