In her more than two decades as a treasury recruitment specialist, Rachael Crocker, partner at Brewer Morris in the Netherlands, has seen a marked evolution in the role of the treasurer. “It’s a definite trend, no question,” she says. “I’ve noticed it over many years. The treasurer’s role is continually evolving and moving along its journey quite quickly.”
The past 10 years, in particular, have seen a move towards a more strategic role for treasury professionals. “As a lot of more fundamental tasks have become automated, we’ve seen the treasurer occupying a more strategic role within the team. What we have then seen happening is CFOs and others asking: what else can sit under this person, given their strategic mindset and the fact that they are so well connected across the business,” Crocker says.
Their professional training, along with their tendency to be well connected across their organisations, often sees treasurers segue into corporate finance, investor relations, insurance and ESG – a huge and increasingly current area.
“Treasurers, because of the links to green financing, tend to be quite knowledgeable on ESG and quite skilled in that area – and because they’re so plugged in and strategically minded, this area is a natural fit,” Crocker says. “We certainly have seen more treasurers in London and within Europe moving into the CSO role, and picking up the ESG mandate more and more.
“To do the job, you have to have an understanding of the operational direction of the organisation – how it works, how it’s structured. So, it sets them up to be quite well positioned to take up these wider responsibilities – particularly if it’s a new area, where you are going to have to navigate new information and new ways of doing things. Being that plugged into how the organisation works and what the key relationships are just makes treasurers the obvious person to do that,” says Crocker.
As a lot of more fundamental tasks have become automated, we’ve seen the treasurer occupying a more strategic role within the team
Joanna Bonnett, the immediate past president president of the Association of Corporate Treasurers, is one of those whose role has evolved into sustainable finance and beyond. She is currently flourishing as an independent chief sustainability officer, having recently moved from Page Group, where she was group treasurer and chief sustainability officer.
The treasurer’s role has undergone a remarkable evolution, Bonnett says. They can now expect to be at the forefront of finance leadership. In her own treasury career, she has witnessed treasurers expanding their horizons beyond traditional boundaries. “Some have taken on tax, risk management, insurance, pensions, investor relations, and sustainability initiatives.”
The common ingredient, she argues, is a willingness to lean into their own development, because doing so opens up a vast array of possibilities: “Those who invest in themselves and their teams unlock a world of personal growth and fulfilment. Engaging in ground-breaking work – often collaborating with banks to co-develop pioneering products – breeds leadership and opens doors to diverse career paths within the senior leadership team and beyond finance.”
Undoubtedly, technological advances have played a role. “A lot of the things we would consider traditional treasury tasks have been automated,” says Crocker. “The teams are structured differently now. The operational element is less time-consuming, so there is just more capacity for valued-added activity.”
One of the advantages of the treasurer’s role for individual development – and for the evolution of the treasury profession – is the organisational vantage point it affords. Richard Garry, director of group treasury, insurance and pensions, at Informa, believes that the roles occupied by senior treasury professionals give them an insight into their organisations’ reach and activities – insight that is invaluable when it comes to cultivating the kind of strategic outlook that leadership roles require.
As part of his CFO’s management team, for instance, group treasurer, adding responsibility for investor relations to his brief in 2019. Having got a treasury function up and running at Renewi, he embraced the core investor-relations tasks: writing trading statements, results presentations, and co ordinating capital-markets events. Site tours, talking to analysts, and conducting a request for proposals for brokers also fell to him, as did overall responsibility for a secondary listing for Renewi in Amsterdam in 2020.
Investor relations activities have a distinct timetable, with quarterly reporting – which, in practice, tended to mean finding space for mainstream treasury activities, such as RCF renewals or bonds, in the gaps between. “It’s perfectly manageable if you have a great team on both sides,” says Richford, who believes investor relations is a natural progression for treasurers.
“Essentially, you do debt-investor relations in your treasury role. So, you’re telling the story of the company to debt investors and banks. Their perspective is different, and their objective is to get their money back without too much downside risk. So, it’s a different narrative to other stakeholders.
“Investor relations is exactly the same, but telling the company’s story to other stakeholders – shareholders, analysts. Actually, the treasurer is very capable of supporting that role, because you have to understand the company very well to talk to stakeholders on the debt investor side. (see, The view from: investor relations, The Treasurer Issue 3 2023 p30)
“Compared with treasury, it is a profession, but not quite so well studied. There is not such a strong professional qualification around investor relations, because the skills are more around communicating and coordinating.”
Those who invest in themselves and their teams unlock a world of personal growth and fulfilment
Another way to exercise new or wider skill sets is to look outside the business for non-executive roles in organisations such as housing associations. That is, as Garry points out, quite a well-established path for treasurers. Housing associations have large balance sheets and large borrowing requirements – familiar challenges for treasurers.
“It’s a natural step into a non-executive role, which gives you a broader perspective of a different business,” adds Garry, who has been non-executive committee member at Sovereign Housing Association since 2019. “It’s not an extension of what I do here at Informa, but it is an extension in terms of my own career.”
When it comes to managing and cultivating the treasury professionals on his team, Garry is in a position to encourage them to engage with finance opportunities within the wider finance function, or look abroad for openings that might, in turn, give them wider responsibilities and strategic insight.
“To allow people to be more rounded, we can allow people to move into roles overseas. On individual left to become the regional treasurer in Singapore, which meant she was, effectively, treasurer for that office. She went from being a very focused treasury manager to having to think about the whole raft of treasury topics,” Garry says.
However an individual is inclined to manage their career, they are well served by the treasury mindset, with its forward-looking outlook, he adds, which differs from the accountancy reporting mindset, for instance. “As a treasurer, you look at the balance sheet differently. In terms of driving a business, treasury is a real value-add,” says Garry.
Crocker agrees. “That whole accounting mindset is quite different from that of the treasurer,” she says. “Looking back from an accounting point of view is obviously important for the organisation, but I do think it is quite different from the treasurer’s approach.
“Treasurers are fairly unique in that they have to be forward-facing – and they have to be able to look at the bigger picture for the organisation.” In the wake of seismic events such as the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, treasurers have – as Bonnett points out – taken to presenting in the boardroom and CEO offices globally.
“Gone are the days of merely managing financing and excess cash in isolation,” says Bonnett. “Now, treasurers are catalysts for change, leading the charge towards automation
and innovation.”
Liz Loxton is a freelance journalist and former editor of The Treasurer
This article was taken from Issue 2, 2024 of The Treasurer magazine. For more great insights, members can log in to view the full issue.