The Treasurer’s Deals of the Year awards have been going for 18 years now and it’s been an extraordinary journey.
Not just for statistics alone, although they have been remarkable, but for the respect and recognition treasurers have brought to their profession. Now, having said the word statistics, I can’t resist the temptation...
More than $2 trillion of capital funding and finance has been raised in the last 12 months and more than 2,500 nominations recognising those deals have been submitted. I should also mention the 1800 people fed and watered at the celebration lunches (and now dinners) and nearly two hundred awards given out. I’m not even going to guess at the number of photos taken – some of them even of your blogger!
Winners have come from far and wide across Europe; the UK, Ireland, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, Sweden have all produced winners. As you’d expect, some of the UK’s and Europe’s largest companies have been well represented – Linde, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, Sky. But plenty of lesser-known names, also deserving of their evening in the spotlight, have been nomintaed, including Marston’s (coincidentally profiled in the latest edition of the Treasurer!), Pace, Grifols, Wind telecom and others besides. A few have been serial offenders – you know who you are! – but there’s always plenty to choose from!
The format has become so successful that we’ve exported it to our network in the Middle East and the awards and dinner there has become a highlight of the social calendar for the treasury profession across the Gulf region.
What’s brought them together?
It’s not a secret that all of these treasurers and their teams have done highly professional, hugely committed work for the benefit of their organisations. Not only that though, they have also helped to lead the way in terms of treasury developing as a critical function for strategic financial and business health.
More important still is the fact that the awards have always been the only ones in the treasury profession that are judged by practitioners who make their choices without fear or favour. Judging room arguments are legendary – although we’ve never come to blows…yet!
If it’s all new to you, check out the videos from last year and look out for the February edition of The Treasurer.