Member story: Chris Egan, Head of Treasury, Eurostar

1. What made you choose a career in treasury?

I started my career as an accountant. My first move from practice was into a Financial Controller role that included responsibility for cash management and investment management. I had no experience in these areas so hastily enrolled on the AMCT course, which in turn sparked an interest in the other areas of treasury.

2. What attracted you to your current role?

I was initially attracted by the Eurostar brand and then the role itself which offered the right balance of building on existing strengths as well as opportunities to develop in some areas where my experience was thin.

3. What key issue(s) are affecting your treasury team over the next few months?

Brexit is taking up a large amount of senior management time given that almost all Eurostar revenues are made from running a cross-border service. It really is as fundamental as needing to ensure that we are able to continue to run a service post Brexit, with the necessary licences and safety certificates. Elsewhere in the organisation there is push to increase digitisation and streamline processes. In treasury the focus has been on increasing system linkages to improve straight-through processing. On the insurance front, we have just gone through the annual renewal and are now appraising the transfer of two currently uninsured risks - non-damage business interruption and cyber.

4. What innovation has made the most difference to your working environment in the last few years?

My working environment and work-life balance has improved tremendously over recent years. I would put this down to two things, the change in mindset to accommodate flexible working coupled with a move to cloud computing that makes home-working much easier and less prone to downtime.

5. What is the one thing you love most about your job?

My role includes responsibility for the insurance function as well all core treasury so the role reaches into every corner of the business, involves lots of social contact and offers tremendous variety. A day could find me realigning a hedging portfolio in the morning and then in the afternoon hosting a group of insurers on a site visit to a heavy engineering rail depot.

6. What member benefits do you use most?

The career hub. It contains a vast array of on-line learning, including links to other great sites such as the Ashridge Management College.

7. What three words would you use to describe yourself?

Balanced, self-critical and resilient.

8. What has been the best piece of advice you have been given?

I’ve long been drawn to the idea of leading by example and in this regard the advice that I was given was to constantly ask myself whether I would be proud to preach what I practice. I think that this is a great starting point for self-reflection.

9. Who is your career hero?

There are a few people who I have found inspirational during my career, a partner in an accountancy practice and a CFO in particular, but I have never had a high profile career hero.

10. What book are you reading at the moment?

Deep Thinking by Garry Kasparov. I am not a huge chess fan but the book starts as an account of Kasparov’s rematch with supercomputer Deep Blue in 1997 and then develops into a wider consideration of how machines can augment rather than replace human capabilities.

I’m also working my way through Running Revolution by Nicholas Romanov. I have been a keen runner since my teens but for the last eighteen months I have suffered from a series of niggling injuries. One of my brothers gave me this book to help me revisit how I run in a way that puts less stress on my body. It’s early days but I certainly feel stronger and am having more patches when running seems effortless again.