In a career that has taken him from heavy industrial manufacturing, sportswear and travel to media and telecoms, Case has learnt the importance of flexibility and good planning when faced with market shocks and natural disasters. Now, through the ACT Council, he is giving back to the profession that has helped him to stay calm through these challenging times.
Here, he tells The Treasurer about his career, why he joined the ACT Council and what the future holds for treasury.
I am currently the group treasurer of Sky, one of Europe’s leading media and entertainment companies, operating across six countries in Europe. We are probably best known for TV, but today Sky has a large range of products and services in many other areas such as Sky Mobile, Sky Broadband and Sky Studios. Since 2018, Sky has been part of the Comcast Corporation, which also includes NBC Universal.
My treasury team is a relatively lean team of seven, based at Sky headquarters in Osterley, West London. We provide treasury services to all Sky group companies, and we also manage certain Comcast Group treasury activities.
I encourage, and Sky fully supports, my team to study for the ACT exams and two of my team members are currently doing just that.
My corporate treasury career began some 27 years ago – I was studying for CIMA, and I happened across corporate treasury and thought it sounded interesting. I did some research and set a recruitment consultant the challenge of finding me a role in corporate treasury, which they did – finding me a role in the European treasury centre of a global heavy industrial manufacturer. After gaining this valuable grounding in treasury, I moved to Germany to join adidas.
The nature of treasury means you are required to face into the issues of the day. In my career, I have had to navigate through several crises and challenging periods. I left Germany in July 2001 after four years with adidas, returning to the UK in August 2001 to join First Choice Holidays plc (which later became TUI Travel).
That was a month before the 9/11 attacks.
I remained in the travel sector for a number of years, and we had to manage through many different crises and market shocks that had severe impacts on travel for a significant period afterwards – as well as the 9/11 attacks, there was the Icelandic volcano that shut down airspace in Europe for more than a week.
The global financial crisis of course also had serious ramifications for treasury, and still impacts the financial markets and the work of treasury today.
The most recent, and biggest, shock was the pandemic, which required treasury to think outside the box. In a very short space of time, we had to figure out how to run our treasury operation remotely.
The nature of treasury means you are required to face into the issues of the day. In my career, I have had to navigate through several crises and challenging periods
The current challenges are many – the impacts from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, inflation and the cost of living, navigating through Brexit, managing the transition from a prolonged period of low interest rates and the challenges from moving to more sustainable business practices.
All of this requires a calm head, and experience tells you to adapt and be flexible, plan well, face into the challenges and don’t panic!
I joined the Council in May, after being elected in the member elections held in April.
I decided to stand for election following a couple of conversations with Council members earlier in 2023 that piqued my interest and caused me to reflect on the influence of the ACT during my treasury career.
The ACT has been there throughout my time in treasury and has helped me along the road with the recognition that comes from the ACT professional qualifications. The many events that I’ve attended down the years have provided fantastic learning, development and networking opportunities.
Recently, the more I reflected the more I thought it’s time to give something back. I’m hoping that my experience can be put to good use. I can support the great team we have at the ACT and promote the great work the ACT does for its members and the industry.
Stuart Case was speaking to Philip Smith, editor of The Treasurer
