Member story: Jiameng Yu, Assistant Treasurer, Vodafone

1. Tell us about your career to date.

I started my career at Deloitte in their tax practice. By pure chance, I was involved in a few tax projects where derivatives and financing featured heavily, which attracted me to the world of treasury. After spending a few years doing treasury, tax and treasury advisory projects, I eventually moved into corporate treasury at Tate & Lyle Plc.

I enjoyed my time at Tate & Lyle very much but Vodafone made me an offer that I could not possibly refuse in their Group Treasury team. So, I have been having a lot of fun doing what I love at Vodafone since 2014. I took maternity leave for six months in 2018. Vodafone were absolutely fantastic in supporting me both during my pregnancy and after my return to work.

Feeling both sad and excited, I will be leaving Vodafone in August for my next challenge.

2. Why did you decide on a career in treasury?

In terms of diversity of work and experience, few careers in any curriculum can match treasury. Treasury suits my skills set and may open doors to future opportunities - who knows what the future will hold!

3. What has been the most interesting project you have been involved in and why?

A very difficult question to answer. I have done multi-billion financing transactions, designed brand new structures, worked on large M&A projects, created operational efficiency by automating certain processes. I would say all of them are equally interesting in their own ways.

4. You spoke about funding subsidiaries at the most recent ACT Annual Conference. What were the key messages from your case study session?

Three points – 1) be clear on your funding strategy; 2) work with your tax colleagues to ensure you have a robust process to ensure any internal loans are on arm’s length terms; 3) use this as an opportunity to get the treasury team more familiar with the underlying businesses.

5. How has technology changed the way you work in the last 5 to 10 years?

Technology has definitely enabled me to work more flexibly. I have a long commute so being able to work remotely and while on-the-go has done wonders for my work-life balance.

6. What gadget could you not do without and why?

I can live without any gadget, though admittedly it would be harder to part with some than others.

7. What book are you reading at the moment?

Rotating between “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari and “This is going hurt” by Adam Kay. After “The Fifth Risk” by Michael Lewis, I was so depressed that I gave myself a five-book ban on anything to do with finance, economics, politics or current affairs.

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

Driven, Passionate, Resilient.

9. Who is your business hero?

Masayoshi Son. He is a visionary and the living definition of being resilient.

10. It’s the ACT’s 40th anniversary year. Please provide a birthday message for the ACT.

Happy Birthday! Here’s to another 40 great years of representing treasurers on the world stage!