The opening keynote speaker at the ACT Europe Conference 2016 in Düsseldorf, 9 March, Peter Llewellyn-Davies discusses challenges and opportunities for the year ahead.
Peter is Chief Financial Officer and Member of the Executive Board of Medigene AG.
As a Brit living and working in Europe I see the impending referendum as early as June on whether the country should remain in the EU or leave as a major concern. This will be a seminal moment, not just for the UK, but for the EU as a whole. It will have economic influences as well as diplomatic disruption and many ex-pats, like myself, will need to consider changing nationality to stay within the country of employment.
Just as important however is the management of immigration into Europe. More than 1.8 million people entered the EU illegally between January and October 2015, with some 980,000 applying for asylum. Living in Munich I witnessed hands on which social disruption the ad-hoc inflow of refugees is occurring. Villages in Bavaria are having to take on more migrants than inhabitants, valuable properties in quiet residential areas are being used for migrant housing.
Despite the obvious need for a humanitarian solution, better distribution of arrivals across the EU is vital and solutions for integration over the upcoming years remain unclear.
I see two immediately: the development of immunotherapies and big data.
We are making great steps in science, in particular using the immune system to combat the diseases without cure from the past. Just imagine, we can conquer cancer with a vaccine and without side effects! Many companies are working on this technology as we speak with promising results.
Big data has also an enormous potential with programmes and researchers mining vast quantities of computerised information. Big data — and the algorithms developed to make sense of it — are both exciting and potentially worrisome at the same time.
I recall a presentation by HP (yes, the printer people) who explained that they could digest all mobile data transmitted by mobile phones at a major sporting event and analyse this real time to give organisers an idea of what the spectators are really interested in. Scary, but exciting too!
A great treasurer needs primarily to be a positive thinker.
When I was a corporate treasurer the main focus was on managing cash flows and funding requirements, exchange rate risks and interest rate optimisation within the group. We even had a flutter in certain operating currencies leading to mostly positive FX results (luckily!). As now, treasurers were internal advisers and provided strategic input on funding requirements and how best to limit exposure.
These days, with the Euro and low interest rates, other areas are more important. Although a treasurer is essentially a risk management specialist and ensures that compliance and risks taken by the enterprise are balanced, performance is enhanced by having a practical basic knowledge of various associated corporate support functions.
In these areas, a great corporate treasurer more than ever needs to be a generalist, understanding the strategic direction of the company and acting within parameters set by the board. Even IT, managing data flows and now even more than before, counterpart risks are top of the list of priorities, also in view of possible banking defaults.
About the author: Peter Llewellyn-Davies has been Chief Financial Officer and Member of the Executive Board of Medigene AG since October 2012. He has extensive experience in senior positions in medium-sized companies in the commercial as well as the financial sector, most recently from 2006 to 2012 as CFO of WILEX AG, Munich. Prior to this, he was Managing Director of Müller Dairy (UK) Ltd and Executive Director Finance at Süd-Chemie AG. Peter started his career as a banker, moving into a corporate treasury role and then expanding his acumen into his current profile. He read business management, banking, marketing and controlling in London, St. Gallen and Munich, and has a certificate in business studies from the University of London.
[su_box title="Join us in Dusseldorf" box_color="#51284F" radius="1"]The ACT Europe Conference 2016 will take place in Düsseldorf on Wednesday 9 March.[/su_box]
