I originally started in food service with Sodexho as a chef, before becoming a chef manager and subsequently an area manager. I then moved to Compass, also as an area manager, before moving into finance, where I completed my CIMA qualifications. I moved to The Clancy Group in 2008 as Group Financial Controller and then when that role was divided up, following growth, I took the opportunity to move into treasury as the Group Treasurer, and then completed my AMCT qualification.
I enjoy the diversity and, coming from an accountancy background, that treasury is more forward looking and dynamic. In addition, the impact that strategy has on treasury and vice versa is both challenging and enjoyable.
Probably the biggest challenge was defining what treasury would look like for the group and carving out the elements that would be treasury from those remaining with finance. We have ended up with my responsibilities encompassing accounts payable, tax, capital expenditure financing, in addition to normal treasury functions such as cash management & forecasting, relationships with financial institutions and capital structure.
Fortunately, I was able to recruit a Treasury Analyst internally from within the finance team. However, the biggest challenge was always going to be to recruit my right-hand person as that individual ideally needed knowledge and/or skills across a wide spectrum including treasury, taxes (in particular corporation tax, VAT and CIS), accounting and preferably construction experience. We advertised for somebody with all of those skills in the hope that we would receive applicants with most of them, recognising that the others would have to be trained. Ultimately, we were able to recruit an individual with tax, accounting and construction experience.
While much of what treasury does is, to an extent, isolated from the rest of the finance team, which is largely focused on reporting, there are many dependencies across the two and therefore good communication helps both functions in delivering value to the business.
When I joined Clancy I was immediately involved in an ERP implementation, and while I had been involved in several of these at Compass it was a challenge to lead the finance aspect of this while still getting to grips with all the accounting techniques that are unique to construction.
Never be afraid to question the status quo.
It was a challenge to pick up textbooks again, after a long gap since my accountancy exams, but it was fascinating and valuable. I met some interesting people from around the world on some of the online courses.
The website is a useful source of information and The Treasurer a thought provoking read. I also gain a lot of value from the webinars.
My phone. It has become so much more than just a means of communication, both personally and professionally, with so much of life being run via an App.