My career path is not quite your stereotypical treasury one. After doing Tourism and Leisure Management at university, I started off in operations before working in various roles in finance, from income audit to payroll and general ledger. I never considered treasury until I worked in Affinity Water Ltd where the then Treasurer’s passion for treasury intrigued me. So when the opportunity arose to join the team, I jumped at the chance and have never looked back since. I left Affinity Water due to a move up North but managed to secure a role as a Treasury Business Partner before moving up to the Senior Treasury Business Partner for Sovini Group. And at the end of last year, I took on the Treasury Manager role with Rathbones Group.
I love that no two days are the same. There is always something new and exciting in the horizon and so a big part of it is forward thinking and being proactive rather than reactive, looking at things holistically rather than in silos. I also like the fact that we work closely with other parts of the business, which is where my experience working in different teams come in handy, as well as external counterparties.
The first thing that caught my interest was Rathbones Group as a company. I’d never worked for a wealth and investment management group before, let alone one with a banking license, so I was intrigued on what treasury’s role is within the wider business, especially in terms of the prudential risk management. And reading the job description, one of the things that stuck out was that the role would have an advisory role for the banking committee, which would be a great for my professional development.
Go for it. Check out ACT qualification and download the syllabus and free sample material to get a bit of an insight of what working in treasury entails before making the leap. Treasury teams in different businesses differ greatly both in responsibilities and structure but the ACT qualification will give you strong fundamentals and the technical knowledge applicable in any types of treasury teams you might be a part of. And it’s never too late to change career so do not be afraid to make the leap at whichever stage of your career you are in if you believe it is the right thing to do and something you would like to pursue. There are so many skills and experience that are transferable to treasury, something I experienced first-hand since even the skills I gained through working in operations have helped me when dealing with certain situations.
There are two that spring to mind, one was the issuance of Affinity Water’s first CPI-linked bond and the other one their first swap transaction. Since the treasury team only consisted of the Treasurer and myself, I was involved in both processes from start to finish and it was amazing to be involved in transactions that were completely new to the company. Saying that, Rathbones is currently in the middle of an M&A project so it might just topple those two experiences soon.
When I first started off in finance, the financial controller instilled in the team that we were not there solely to input and report figures but to understand what they mean so we would notice any issues, investigate them and consequently report them. And to me, it does not apply to just figures but processes. Sometimes people fall into the habit of doing tasks in a certain way because that is how they have always been done. What I try to do is to understand the task as a whole: why do we do it, who are impacted by the outcome of the task, is it necessary or is there any other task we or any other teams are doing as well that yield the same result, can we make it more efficient and so on.
Definitely the access to webinars. I find their contents interesting and very relevant to my role and the choice of speakers has been great. I love reading The Treasurer magazine as well as it keeps me up to date with any developments and news in the treasury world and have started using the Career Hub more recently.
Definitely my laptop, although my phone is a close second. Both gadgets open a world of possibilities at my fingertips but my laptop edges it slightly because it is easier to work on spreadsheets, presentations and reports there rather than on my phone.
I do not have one but I have been lucky enough to encounter amazing and inspirational leaders throughout my career, from the then Financial Controller of Jurys Inn, Hitesh Morker, who gave me my first role in finance and the then Treasurer of Affinity Water, Shaun Kennedy, who inspired me to go for my first Treasury role to his replacement, Nilesh Patel, who pushed me out of my comfort zones and always championed me throughout my stint there.
I am not reading anything at the moment but the last book I read was Richard Osman’s The Bullet That Missed, which I read while on holiday.