Member story: Daniel Wong, Head of Corporate Treasury, BAT

1. What has been your career path to date?

Currently Head of Corporate Treasury. Prior to that, I was; Deputy CFO Eastern Europe; Head of AsPac M&A; Head of Global Treasury Operations and; Head of Dealing Room.

2. What do you like about working in treasury?

I love the strategic and highly impactful nature of work in treasury. To combine critical business decisions with the technical space of corporate finance. There isn’t a dull moment so far.

3. You have recently worked in Asia and are now working in the UK. What do you think are the main differences between working in Asia and Europe?

There are significant cultural differences that drives behaviours between Asia and Europe. For example, Asian culture (in general) is much more collectivistic which drives a more collaborative and supportive environment. European culture (in general) is much more individualistic which drives innovation and dynamism. These experiences lead me to strong believe that stronger diversity and inclusive allows people (like myself) and organisations to get the best of both worlds!

4. How do you think working practices have changed in the last few years? 

Events such as the pandemic have elevated the importance of work-life balance and rapidly introduced tools to the masses that enables this, such as video conferencing, remote working and hybrid working. People are generally more understanding in flexible arrangements without necessarily sacrificing on productivity and output. Ultimately, there’s no one size fits all solution and teams need to balance between flexibility and collaborating face to face but prior to the pandemic, for most knowledge workers, there was never much flexibility at all.

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

This would be my project to set up the Global Treasury Operations team in Romania. It was the first time that I was given a blank sheet of paper to design the organisation, processes and systems of our future treasury setup. It was an experience to go through from inception to implementation and an absolute privilege to have built a team from scratch and work with them to deliver a centralised operating model. They continue to operate and deliver value today which is a proud legacy of mine.

6. Who is your career hero?

There isn’t a specific career hero. Instead, I like to learn both “what to do” and “what not to do” from a wide source of individuals. There are lessons to be learnt from the approach of Sir Alex Ferguson (ex-Manager of Manchester United Football Club) on leadership as well as innovation and organisation approaches of Jeff Bezos from Amazon.

7. What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

Always be curious. The world is a big place and there’s always something to learn to improve our lives and the lives of people around us.

8. What member benefit do you use the most?

The opportunity to network and engage to learn about new things is the best benefit I use!

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

Sadly, it’s my mobile phone. It’s an addiction of the modern era. I have my whole life inside!

10. What book are you reading at the moment?

I love history of all sorts. I’m reading “The Shortest History of India” by John Zubrzycki.