I started on the Finance Graduate scheme at Dixons in 2006 where I got my first taste of treasury as a Treasury Analyst in the first of three roles within the scheme. I enjoyed my time in treasury so much that after completing the graduate scheme I re-joined the department in a Treasury Manager role until an opportunity arose in 2010 to join Tesco’s treasury team. I spent a number of years in various dealing roles within the Front Office team learning an incredible amount about the business and engaging with many internal and external stakeholders. I wanted to broaden my treasury experience further so in 2014 I decided to leave Tesco and join JLT as their Group Treasury Manager however after a year in the role I returned to Tesco after being offered a role as Front Office Manager and I continued to broaden my experience by moving into the Funding and Balance Sheet team last year to take on a role as Treasury Manager – Balance Sheet.
In my current role I am involved in the strategic decision-making from a treasury perspective in areas relating to the Group’s balance sheet and Property portfolio. This involves having to work very closely with our Group Finance, Tax, Property, Legal and Corporate Finance teams, often forming working groups to deal with key initiatives.
This year the treasury team has been focused on cross functional development and as a result we’ve introduced projects that are open to the entire department to get involved in. I’ve volunteered to be part of a Liquidity project focusing on improving our current liquidity and cash management operations and how we want to build a revolutionary solution to replace our current setup. The project has been very interesting so far involving visits to other treasury teams in various industries to discuss how they tackle key changes in banking regulations whilst effectively managing the Group’s liquidity requirements. I am excited to be involved in something that will shape the future of our treasury operations and look forward to contributing to the outcome.
Alongside achieving my AMCT qualification I would have to say one of the most memorable highlights of my career was at Tesco where we were involved in a piece of work to identify suppliers executing FX trades on our behalf. We engaged with buyers and directly with their suppliers to centralise the FX exposure allowing us to use our expertise and guidance to manage it whilst helping our suppliers by collaborating with them to achieve a saving. It’s not often that a treasury function is able to work directly with its suppliers in this way and created a unique and innovative way of working at the time.
Ultimately I have aspirations to become a Group Treasurer. I hope to continue to build my experience across the department and utilise it to help my development within the team. Tesco have always provided a supportive platform for opportunities to get on and I hope to continue to utilise these to progress in the future. Outside of work, we’ve recently acquired a piano so I’m keen to learn how to play it alongside my daughters once they are old enough!
The ACT career hub is a great resource and I particularly like the Competency Framework that highlights the key technical, behavioural and business skills that are required for your level of role as well as all other levels. I often use it as a guide to understand development areas.
Collaboration, resilience, proactivity, curiosity, influencing and networking.
The Hungry Caterpillar (My 2 year old finds it highly entertaining!).
Enjoy the here and now as life is too short.
Lewis Hamilton – to discuss what skills and techniques he thinks are crucial to success as well as getting some pit-lane gossip whilst I’m there!