Chaired by Emilie Helps, the ACT Membership Advisory Panel provide input and feedback on matters related to membership of the ACT. This includes membership categories, benefits, engagement, career development support, retention and recruitment. The panel consists of treasury professionals from across all the categories of membership and from the different sectors our membership represents. These volunteers provide an essential voice on behalf of all our members.
For further information about the panel please read the terms of reference.
Joseph Braunhofer joined Smith+Nephew in 2015 and is currently Group Treasurer with responsibility for treasury (including financing & funding), pensions, and insurance. Joseph started his finance career in banking before working in a number of progressively senior roles at Royal Dutch Shell including a spell as Treasurer of Brunei Shell Petroleum. Joseph is a qualified accountant (ACMA), and a Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (FCT).
Profile to come.
Please provide a brief overview of your career to date.
I’m a qualified treasurer and accountant. I’ve worked in corporate and financial services businesses developing and improving treasury functions and wider risk management areas such as insurance and control frameworks. I’ve also worked in advisory, covering a wide range of topics across treasury, risk and regulation.
What do you like about working in treasury?
I love the fast-moving nature of working with financial markets, the opportunity to respond to developments such as regulation, technology and innovation and most of all, being able to make a difference.
What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Membership Advisory Panel?
I am proud to be a member of the ACT. After previously organising the ACT Treasury Network events in the North of England I wanted to join the Membership Advisory Panel to input on matters that would benefit all members.
Why should members get involved with the ACT?
The ACT is a very professional and respected organisation. The team at the ACT are very friendly and getting involved is a great way to learn more and extend your network.
What 3 words best describe you?
Intelligent, driven, professional.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
I’ve been lucky to work with great people throughout my career. Rather than receiving advice, seeing how they have responded to situations and working with others has been invaluable.
Tell us something interesting about yourself.
I need regular exercise – whether its walking, running, swimming or digging the garden, it keeps me happy which in turn allows me to be at my best.
Please provide a brief overview of the your career to date.
I started my career as a Treasury Graduate at Northern Rock before moving to the Insolvency Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 2008, I joined National Grid in London occupying several finance posts covering foreign exchange and capital markets activities before moving to the US in 2012 to guide the US function through their Global Treasury Systems Implementation. From 2013 to 2016 I was US Treasurer responsible for the company’s US treasury, commodity risk management team and pension operations. Since then I have held the roles of NY Controller, US Head of Business Services and more recently supporting our gas business as Vice President – Finance Business Partner.
Having studied both in the US and UK, I hold a BA (Hons) in Economics and Politics, and an MSc Economics. Before starting my career I worked as a Research Assistant at Durham Business School.
What do you like about working in treasury?
I love the technical aspect of the function but more importantly the key role treasury plays in enabling both growth and financial stewardship of any commercial operation. From the supply chain, through to pensions there are not many elements of an enterprise where Treasury doesn't have a role to play and value to create.
What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Membership Advisory Panel?
Treasury continues to play an ever changing but pivotal role in global enterprise, and it's critically important to me that we, as the ACT, build capability, tools and insight that can help organisations and individuals continue to thrive. Having received a great deal of support from the ACT over my own career this is a great opportunity to give back and ensure we continue to nurture and grow the organisation for future generations of Treasury professionals to benefit from.
Why should members get involved with the ACT?
The Treasury profession and its relevance to the organisations we support is purely a function of what we create, and the value we create is in turn a function of the insight and thought leadership we gain from organisations like the ACT. For me the more our members seek to engage with the ACT the greater the opportunity we have to keep content relevant, and importantly, the more we will have a professional body that is advocating and driving the right solutions on behalf of industry.
What 3 words best descrive you?
Pragmatic, transparent, output-focused.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Get comfortable being uncomfortable and then your career will thrive.
Tell us something interesting about yourself.
My second career is farming!
Please provide a brief overview of your career to date.
I became a chartered accountant by training with Coopers & Lybrand in the early 90s and switched to the charity sector straight after qualifying. At Save the Children Fund a lovely woman called Janine Peake, who worked at Bankers Trust donated a little time each quarter to help us with our risk and money management. I loved what she talked about and decided to move into Treasury work full time. This was to coincide with a move out of London and a role came up at FirstGroup in Weston-Super-Mare. I stayed in the south west and have held roles in half a dozen corporates, now at Dyson as Group Treasurer.
What do you like about working in Treasury?
If I don't get out of bed then people may not get paid - what we do every day really matters. Accounting never felt like that.
What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Membership Advisory Panel?
I feel humbled by the work at the ACT. The whole ethos of making the work of the Treasurer accessible, professional and collegiate is a model for cooperation and partnership that all of human life could benefit from. I'm so grateful that the founding visionaries got it started and I want to help the ACT function as well as possible so that others can continue to benefit.
Why should members get involved with the ACT?
See above, but if you don't have the motivation to help the organisation you can still benefit by being closer to decisions and the thought processes.
What 3 words best describe you?
Organising, collegiate, industrious.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Be assertive - say how you really feel. I don't do it enough.
Tell us something interesting about yourself.
I'm leading my church in providing a dozen beds for the homeless through the winter, as part of a network of churches in Bristol which are seeking to ease the pressure on the mainstream infrastructure at the peak period of use. Life feels too full to fit these in, but I want to make this happen.
Profile to come.
Profile to come.
Please provide a brief overview of your career to date.
I graduated from the University of Nottingham with a degree in Economics and then qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG. After qualifying I spent some time in tax before finance roles in media and publishing and then the oil and gas industry where I have been since 1998 when I joined Cairn Energy PLC. After many roles in Cairn I started to get involved in treasury, became Group Treasurer in 2010 and subsequently a Fellow of the ACT. My role at Cairn is great as it is very international and involves a lot of M&A, risk management and fund raising as well as continuing to financial planning.
What do you like about working in treasury?
I love the focus on external relationships, negotiations and always being one of the first involved to evaluate and then deliver new business opportunities which may involve many areas of treasury.
What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Membership Advisory Panel?
To help the ACT become a more natural first career choice for graduates.
Why should members get involved with the ACT?
You are investing in making your own qualification stronger and spreading the word about how enjoyable a role in treasury can be.
What 3 words best describe you?
Proactive, determined and creative.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
There always is a solution if you look hard enough.
Tell us something interesting about yourself.
I spent 13 months travelling the world before joining Cairn.
Please provide a brief overview of your career to date.
Having qualified as a Chartered Accountant, I joined Bunge initially in London. Having spent time learning about our European business and activities, I later set up, and expanded, the UK treasury operations. This was followed by similar treasury reviews, and updates, in Belgium, Holland, France and Spain. I then became CFO in some of these countries, and then in Switzerland, before returning to the UK to become CFO Europe. I now specialise in restructuring projects, which generally includes treasury, tax and legal aspects.
What do you like about treasury?
Efficient and skillful treasury activities are key to the successful running of any company, and can make a significant difference to the profitabiliity of a company, remains crucial to both.
What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Membership Advisory Panel?
I would like members of the ACT, and prospective future ACT members, to understand and take advantage of the benefits of membership.
Why should members get involved with the ACT?
I am a great believer that the more that you put in, the more you can get out.
What three words woudl you use to describe you?
Enthusiastic, considered and open minded.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
If at first you do not succeed, do not give up.
Tell us something interesting about yourself.
Having lived in several European countries, as well as coping with more common languages, I can also speak Dutch.
Profile to come.
Please provide a brief overview of your career to date.
I started my career working on a treasury/markets desk for a wholesale Islamic Bank based in the City where I learnt the craft of liability gathering, economics, sales and executing FX and Money Market trades. I recently moved into the FinTech world, where I manage Client Money for an international company as a treasury analyst.
What do you like about working in treasury?
There's so much! Treasury is such a wide and varied role and presents an enormous amount of opportunity for personal growth and career development. I greatly enjoy working with short-term funds and find Cash Management an interesting challenge. I also like working with Trading Screens and observing the swings in cable and other major currencies, during the release of eocnomic data such as a Nonfarm payrolls.
What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Membership Advisory Panel?
My main reason for joining MAP is to add value to the Treasury world by offering an awareness from a junior level standpoint. The MAP provides a great opportunity for junior Treasury professional to see our treasury leaders in action, and a fantastic chance to contribute to the ACT agenda from a more ground level perspective.
Why should members get involved with the ACT?
I would say to members that ACT is yours to contribute to and add-value. The ACT is an expansive hub of information, knowledge and specialisms, and a member's input whether big or small, goes a long way.
What 3 words best describe you?
Polite, flexible and resilient.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Seek to understand rather than to be understood - this goes a long way when building relationships and one that I personally live by.
Tell us something interesting about yourself.
I support a famous London football club, because a star striker used to live across the road from me.
Please provide a brief overview of your career to date.
I am currently Finance Director for Fairview New Homes having joined in August 2015. Prior to joining Fairview I held the roles of "Regional Finance Director" for Barratt London and "Head of Treasury and Corporate Finance" for the Barratt Group. I have also held other senior treasury positions including Group Treasurer at Allied Domecq. I am a Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (where I was President in 2012) and I'm also a Fellow of the Association of Certified Accountants.
What do you like about working in treasury?
My role now is Finance Director, however what I enjoyed when I worked in Treasury was the 'look forward' requirements for the role. This involved the need to really understand the business operations for risk and liquidity management. In addition you are the main compnay contact and representative into the debt & capital markets.
What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Membership Advisory Panel?
Providing support and guidnace to the ACT team.
Why should members get involved with the ACT?
The ACT's educational offering is first class and due to it's size it offers a more 'club' style culture. This provides a platform for members to share ideas as well as experiences and the opportunity to promote the ACT to others.
What 3 words best describe you?
Optimist, motivated, fair.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
During my first ever day at work, my boss said to me 'generally you should find the job requirements will be relatively straightforward, it is managing the people that is the challenge!'.
Tell us something interesting about yourself
I am a twin.
Please provide a brief overview of your career to date.
I started in banking in the age when there were no desktop computers and just punch-cards! I later moved to British Gas (Treasury) where everyone had some form of qualification, so wanting to join them I decided to study for the ACT exams. When BG departed from London, I moved into Treasury Systems where I managed implementations and support. Following redundancy, I spent a year out and joined a tennis club! I later returned to Corporate Treasury at E.On and eventually moved to a permanent role at Mitsubishi Corporation. Here I spent 15 years where I held a number of roles including Treasurer, Deputy CFO and board Director. I now run my own Consultancy business and my current project is to review business processes in the finance area.
What do you like about working in treasury?
In Treasury there is a significant amount of meaningful work which needs to be handled and executed in a precise manner. There can be unlimited downside risk but there is not always the reward for just getting it right. This is why I like it!
What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Membership Advisory Panel?
The ACT is very dependent on volunteers to help drive it forward by contributing ideas and suggestions. Some of these volunteers help run events which in turn help promote the ACT as the global body who sets standards in Treasury. Consequently one of the missions of the ACT is to engage with members to make them aware of the benefits of the Association. It is my objective to help promote engagement for the purposes of better education and encouraging more volunteers who have first-hand knowledge and experience.
Why should members get involved with the ACT?
See above.
What 3 words best describe you?
Listens, thorough, persevering.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
If a job is worth doing, its worth doing well. Also, a leader is only as good as their team.
Tell us something interesting about yourself?
I met my wife at the Boleyn Ground (previous home of West Ham United)
Profile to come.
