I started my career in a temporary role at Camelot, advising retailers how to operate instant scratchcards. I wasn’t really aware of treasury, but I fell into it as I reported in to the group treasurer. So I worked next to people who were on the phone putting millions of pounds on time deposits, doing FX deals and talking to New York once the London markets had closed – and when a permanent treasury assistant role came up, I applied for it.
I got on really well with my boss there, Neil Perkins, who was a fellow of the ACT. He suggested I take the ACT exams, which I did. I progressed to trading and gained a lot of contacts among banks and brokers, when I’d place players’ funds on time deposits. I got quite a lot of networking out of that along with a view of what working in the City would be like.
After around nine years, I found there wasn’t much more for me to do at Camelot, and the Lottery itself was starting to plateau. Having been there that length of time, I was due a sabbatical so I took some time off and went travelling. When I came back, I decided to look for a treasury job in the City.
I took a maternity cover role for a group treasurer within what was then Amlin, working in a small team, but reporting to the chief investment officer. There were similarities with my previous role, in that we had trust arrangements for policyholders’ funds, and there were the same core treasury activities – making time deposits and paying into money market fund investments, along with cash management and cash forecasting.
It had the added element of being an investment management department, so there was a focus on investing the assets of the insurance entities within the group.
I took the role for a year and built it out so that when my predecessor came back, I’d created a new permanent role for myself as operations controller with the chief investment officer’s support. So I had the group treasurer reporting to me, but the role also covered other elements of the investment operation, such as reporting, IT infrastructure and projects. The funds under management and the number of clients have continued to grow and I am now the head of investment operations with a team of 30 reporting to me.
Four years ago, we decided to launch our own investment fund, and to do that we incorporated an FCA-regulated investment management company. We decided it would streamline the investment structure, be operationally more efficient and financially beneficial to run our own fund, and I led on the setting up of the investment company to do that.
We now run a multi-asset, multi-manager UCITS [Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities] out of Dublin. We selected Carne, a consultancy and fund manager in Dublin, to be the fund manager of the UCITS. It does the fund oversight – the Central Bank of Ireland interaction and reporting – and our investment management company is the lead portfolio manager.
Our clients are the group entities within MS Amlin and our Japanese parent who took us over a couple of years ago. Each of those entities has two investment pots: capital they need to hold to support the business and policyholder money. The capita is more long term, so can take some advantage of illiquidity premia, whereas for the policyholder pot the risk appetite is different.
Before we launched the fund, we had a lot of separate portfolios to deal with. By launching the fund – a multi-asset, multi-manager fund with currency share classes – the investment process, which is risk appetite led, can be implemented more efficiently and in a scalable way, meeting its aims to deliver asset allocations that produce superior risk-adjusted, long-term results.
Yes, the investment management company was incorporated in 2014 and, initially, I was the governance director. Three years ago, I changed to more of a hands-on operational role and the fund launched over a year ago.
I am now the chief risk officer and chief finance officer for the FCA-regulated investment management company. The new structure has broadened my governance experience and given me board experience.
The setting up of the fund: the company supported me in going part-time when I had my daughter. That took me out of my hands-on, day-to-day role into a more advisory one and freed me up to look at opportunities.
I had the chance to formulate the whole project, propose what the structure should be and where I would fit into it, so that was quite pivotal.
That’s changed over time from allocating my own time and using my technical skills in my early career to managing others and then a leadership role.
So now I’ve got a team of very strong managers and they are fully empowered. They take ownership for their areas and they come to me if they need to bounce ideas, if they need to escalate something or need my assistance, for example, with an outsourcing provider. I’ll give them guidance on any changes in the strategy, new clients or anything like that. That’s a different skill set.
Then there is the governance view: being collectively responsible as a board for all aspects of the business and challenging at board meetings and governance committees – understanding the risks of a business more widely.
The investment management business has a broad-ranging risk register: with financial risks and other risks like IT, people risks – aspects of business life that as an operational manager you don’t necessarily deal with on a day-to-day basis.
My participation with the ACT helps with that. I’m active on ARAC – an ACT Council committee with delegated responsibility for areas such as audit, remuneration and risk. I also sit on the ACT’s Members Advisory Panel.
The people who have most inspired me in my working life are Neil Perkins at Camelot, who encouraged me into treasury in the first place, and the chief investment officer here, Jayne Styles. She’s always supported and encouraged me.
I think as a senior person in the insurance group and one of the few senior females, she has needed to push her agenda at times and that has inspired me to do the same. She also has an external non-executive directorship, and was supportive of me playing a part at the ACT. That sort of work is not necessarily always recognised – but it is beneficial.
What still helps me today is the understanding and background in how the markets work. Treasury has also given me a background in risk management – the financial risk management within treasury, which has broadened to become an understanding of enterprise risk management.
A lot of the same thinking is involved, but applied more broadly. So the mindset is transferable.
There is a huge amount of data to be managed and quality checked for regulatory purposes. Bringing efficiencies to these processes can be a challenge.
My advice would be to take ownership and drive positive change.
Everyone can make a difference within the wider business through thinking creatively about established thinking and operating models. If you can demonstrate the enthusiasm and positive thinking to make a difference, you’ll be recognised for that and you can jump-start your career.
It may take persistence, but you can make your own opportunities.
If you would like to play a part in the ACT, we are always keen to hear from members who can share their treasury expertise. From reviewing technical articles for The Treasurer to mentoring students, we have a wide range of activities that rely on our members’ help and support. Scroll to top