In a truly international and diverse career, corporate treasurer Yazzy Tanjutco Moya has moved from one continent to another no fewer than nine times, amassed experience in banking, technology, fast-moving consumer goods and construction, as well as racking up a total of 15 years at one of the world’s largest charities, Save the Children.
These days, her skills are deployed in professional services for some of the world’s most famous individuals, as corporate treasurer of a talent agency – THE talent agency, in fact. Creative Artists Agency (CAA)’s clients include singer-songwriters Lady Gaga and Ed Sheeran, basketball star Dwyane Wade and actor Robert Downey, Jr. But her entry into treasury was, she says, “accidental”.
After graduating in her native Philippines in 1986, Moya made her first intercontinental move and began working in correspondent banking in Amsterdam for what is now ABN AMRO. Thanks to a supportive boss, who encouraged travel and ensured she met clients, she had an early encounter with the corporate treasurer of IBM World Trade Asia Corporation. He offered her a job in corporate treasury in Tokyo, where she fell in love with the job.
After IBM, Moya moved to New York to attend graduate school, but instead of returning to Tokyo to take up a position with JP Morgan, where she had an offer, she moved to Atlanta to the headquarters of The Coca-Cola Company. The formative years she spent there gave her insights into leadership and effective performance that have informed her whole career.
From Coca-Cola to a three-year stint at Save the Children as director of global treasury in the US, before returning home to the Philippines for a two-year spell in a direct investment agency, Moya never lost her willingness to move or commute for the right job. Between 2006 and 2017, she worked for Save the Children, both in Japan and the US, before taking up her current role in January of this year.
So, what have been the highlights and lessons along the way?
Moya’s first berth in treasury, IBM in Japan, provided an excellent viewing platform from which to observe the ascendancy of both the technology sector and the country at that time.
“Japan’s success was technology-driven and its position was rather like China’s now,” says Moya. “IBM was very acquisitive and very competitive on the technology front. Japan was such a powerhouse in the 1980s, and IBM was issuing lines of credit with subsidiaries and was very active there.”
Moya’s subsequent choice of The Coca-Cola Company over JPMorgan turned out to be fortuitous. She went to work at the drinks company at a time of a radical turnaround spearheaded by CEO Roberto Goizueta.
Unlike her fellow graduates who pursued careers in other US blue chips, Moya enjoyed great access not just to Goizueta, but the company’s CFO and COO as well. Goizueta set up a trading room that looked like a bank’s and demonstrated continuous drive to access the lowest cost capital and then deploy it in new markets.
I believe that solid career progression starts with an individual’s choice of company
“I was very lucky to have the opportunity to work with the CEO of The Coca-Cola Company at that time, Roberto Goizueta, specifically on share repurchases,” says Moya.
“By working closely with him, I came to understand what a successful CEO can do for a company. Goizueta personally explained to me what EVA [economic value added] meant – allocating capital to all the right projects to create wealth for shareholders –as it applied to my role in treasury.
“In my five years with Coca-Cola, I saw how he transformed a company that had lost market share in the US for nearly 15 years into a global powerhouse, rewarding shareholders with profits, dividends and share repurchases.
“Working with a CEO like Goizueta was the turning point of my career – I soaked up everything I could learn about treasury and I know what a successful CEO looks like.”
While Coca-Cola had provided a priceless experience, there had been a trade-off for Moya in terms of time and commitment. She reached a point in 1993 where she felt it was time to share what she knew and give something back. For her, this meant joining NGO Save the Children, as director of global treasury.
At one point in her career at that nonprofit organisation, she not only managed being the corporate treasurer of Save the Children US, but also CFO of the Greater East Japan Emergency Response (responding to the earthquake and tsunami of 2011). She would commute from New York to Tokyo every two weeks for two years.
“My 15 years at Save the Children were very fulfilling and at the same time challenging,” says Moya. “I learned to be more creative because I had fewer resources for the work that I had to do. I followed where the money had to go – whether it was intended for the Indonesian tsunami, the Haiti earthquake, the Japan tsunami, the Ebola or Syrian Refugee crises, or many others. I ensured that the value of every contribution was preserved until it was spent.
“As the global treasurer, I made sure that the funds given to us by donors are well spent according to their designation, with the help of a smart and committed treasury team; with streamlined processes and well-thought-of strategies. I sacrificed holidays and time with my own family to provide lasting change in the lives of marginalised children across the globe.”
In a significantly different context, CAA provides Moya with an opportunity to continue to share knowledge and provide support, this time for individuals in the world of sports and entertainment representation. The positivity and energy in this space are compelling, and the fundamentals remain the same: if you help the company do well and provide a sound, well-funded environment for clients and agents, the company will do well.
“What I like about CAA is its culture of collaboration in finding opportunities to grow and diversify the business. It is very dynamic. You are encouraged to stretch beyond your role and be creative so that we can increase market share and drive more profits,” states Moya.
Excelling in a treasury career means embracing complexity and amassing experience, Moya believes. Treasurers who consciously reach beyond their immediate remit and take on wider responsibilities will develop the skills that will propel them into more senior roles.
“I believe that solid career progression starts with an individual’s choice of company,” she says. “A treasury professional looking for maximum development in any early role is right to seek out complexity and exposure to a wide range of challenges.
“One must be prepared to move between organisations and choose companies with a complex structure. The challenges within those early roles can take various forms: international and managerial, as well as technical complexity.
“I was lucky that my first job was in financial services with ABN AMRO. Working for a bank offers substantial technical and regulatory complexity; and then working for multinationals like IBM and The Coca-Cola Company can provide demanding cross-border and hedging challenges.
“Working for the government or not-for-profits also represents significant development opportunities, particularly if the treasury function is core to the business model.
“At the end of the day, every step of my career has given me a feeling of fulfilment and achievement knowing that I have added value – either to another person’s life or to the company.”
Liz Loxton is editor of The Treasurer