In his Christmas message to treasurers (see page 14), Justin Welby, the ACT members’ confidential adviser on ethical and personal issues, talks about the ‘good news’. The good news he means here is the birth of Jesus, but Welby himself received some rather good news in November when he was unveiled as the next Archbishop of Canterbury. From March, he will lead the world’s 77 million-strong Anglican community, inevitably becoming political, as well as a spiritual, figurehead. Former archbishop George Carey has already warned Welby that “nothing he has ever done before” could prepare him for the challenges that lie ahead.
As archbishop, Welby will need to draw on his inner strength and the extensive experience he has accumulated both through his work as a priest and as a corporate treasurer for a one-time FTSE 100 oil exploration company. Already he has found that his time in treasury has stood him in good stead, as he told The Treasurer in an interview last year. (See July/August 2011 issue, pages 42-45.) “Treasury teaches you to be decisive,” he said. “Markets don’t allow you to hang about and vacillate. And treasury teaches you about teamwork and working collaboratively.” It is a tribute to the treasury profession that one of its own small community has gone on to take such a defining role in public life, all the more so given the unpopularity of the finance community generally since the banking crisis struck. In his column on page 13, ACT CEO Colin Tyler talks about the ACT’s role as an advocate of treasurers as leaders and highlights the
broad range of career options that are open to treasurers these days. Archbishop of Canterbury probably wasn’t one of the options he had in mind, but Welby’s ascension to the Church of England top job rather neatly proves his point.
Over the past few months, as I have got to know the treasury community, I have been struck by how many decent, down-to-earth and sincere people I have met. Your profession includes among it some of the best people that finance has to offer. And I hope that as the ACT continues to raise its profile and build momentum through its education and events, other finance communities will take heed of the positive example it sets. Today, you have produced an archbishop. Tomorrow, a prime minister, perhaps?
On that thought-provoking note, I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.
