Our esteemed panel of judges is comprised of experienced practitioners from across the treasury, corporate finance, banking, and advisory worlds. Winners were announced on 20 March 2024 at an awards ceremony at One Great George Street, London.
Lynda Heywood is a non-executive director of Urban Logistics REIT plc and former Group Treasurer of Tesco plc and Kingfisher plc. Lynda started her career with BDO Stoy Hayward before moving to Willis Group as Treasury Accountant. She is a Fellow of both the ICAEW (FCA) and ACT (FCT) and was recently awarded Honorary Fellowship (Hon FCT) in recognition of her contribution to the ACT and the treasury profession.
Alan moved to the UK in 2004 after qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in South Africa. Since then, he has held a number of roles in internal audit, management accounting, technical IFRS conversions and then witihn treasury operations at Toyota Financial Services and Anglo American. Alan then moved to SABMIller and again had very different roles from TMS implementation and regional treasury centre rollouts to group treasury controller and then European & corporate treasurer – spanning eight years across six continents.
As part of the acquisition of SABMiller, Alan moved to Asahi International and set up the group treasury function, and then a group financial shared services which also involved recruiting great new talent, and travelling / meeting people from around the world.
Alan has recently moved to Pepco Group Limited as Director of Group Treasury, Tax and Risk and is enjoying working on a great projects alongside some extremely knowledgeable and talented colleagues and advisors.
Lisa is an experienced Group Treasurer with several years of treasury, corporate finance and complex derivatives experience. She is active in sharing best corporate practice in the application and development of value optimising risk management and has featured in several publications. Her focus has been structuring innovative new solutions across the full treasury, derivative and corporate finance spectrum, considering multi-faceted and often competing factors to deliver the end-to-end result predicated on complimentary seamless innovative approaches to quickly navigate inventive solutions many of which have won awards and high commendations. Lisa is a member of FX Joint Standing Committee chaired by the Bank of England and has been appointed as the UK Representative of the Global FX Committee for the private sector. More recently she has co-founded the corporate finance and risk management firm Dukes & King who look to utilise their track record of innovation and optimisation to support other businesses.
Hailey has over 12 years of experience in a wide range of treasury areas, including funding, cash management, systems, treasury control and accounting. She completed the AMCT in 2012. Hailey started her career at Deloitte and qualified as a chartered accountant in 2004, before moving to Rolls-Royce plc where she spent ten years in various accounting and treasury roles.
Alexandra Lewis has been the Group Treasurer at National Grid plc since November 2017, and is responsible for managing the group’s £40 billion debt book and associated financial risks, including interest rate, currency and liquidity, as well as the risks around the group’s substantial energy procurement programme in the US. She is also responsible for Pensions and Insurance, ensuring that the group’s pension schemes are appropriately funded and managed and procuring insurance to cover failure of the group’s assets and its third-party liabilities. Prior to being appointed Group Treasurer, she was Group Head of Reward at National Grid plc, responsible for the group’s compensation strategy and its implementation for the Board and top 200 executive leaders. She is a Fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales and the Association of Corporate Treasurers, and prior to her role in reward has undertaken various financial roles within National Grid plc, where she has worked since 1997.
Richard joined Rothschild & Co in 2008 having previously worked at Deutsche Bank for 19 years and prior to that 3 years at HSBC. Richard has over 25 years of experience in the debt markets where his clients span the full range of the FTSE-100 and FTSE-250, together with private and overseas corporates. He advises clients on capital structure, financing options and their execution.
The Debt Advisory Group at Rothschild & Co provides independent advice on the raising and refinancing of debt. This covers borrowers across all sectors, the full credit spectrum and debt market alternatives including advice on credit ratings, hedging and derivatives and liability management. The Debt Advisory Group undertake approximately 150 completed assignments every year representing circa €100bn of debt raising/refinancing.
Martyn qualified with the ACT in 1987. He was elected to Council in 2009 and was President for 2014/15. He was a long-standing member of the ACT’s Programme committee and is now on the Policy & Technical panel.
Martyn trained as a Chartered accountant with Touche Ross in Bristol. He then worked in various Bristol- then London-based finance roles with Tyndall group, Ætna Life, Midland Bank, Grand Metropolitan, Kingfisher and Delta group before joining Dyson in Malmesbury in 2001 as Director of Tax & Treasury. From 2013 to 2017 Martyn worked for Weybourne Partners (the Dyson Family Office) as Chief Financial Officer, based in Malmesbury. He now has his own consultancy business and has several roles with not-for-profit organisations.
Following 10 years in investment banking, Mark joined BAE Systems Group Treasury in 2004. In his current position, reporting to the Group Treasurer, Mark is responsible for cash management, bank account management, foreign exchange and interest rate hedging and back office activities.
Mark holds an MBA and is a chartered accountant.
Paul Watters is Head of Credit Research for S&P Global Ratings in Europe. He currently chairs S&P’s European Credit Conditions Committee that focuses on emerging global and regional risks.
Prior to his current role Paul has held various senior roles within S&P’s Leveraged Finance Group since joining S&P in January 2002, that included being a primary analyst for a portfolio of high yield credits in the metals and mining, chemicals and oil and gas sectors.
Previous to S&P, Paul spent almost fifteen years working in debt capital markets in various senior trading and research roles with both Lehman Brothers and Nomura International.
Paul is a CFA Charterholder, and a Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.
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