Adam Smith Awards – winners podcast series: Recent Episodes
Treasury Today Group
The Adam Smith Awards are globally recognised as the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. Throughout this dedicated podcast series, we take a deep dive into each of the winning solutions, in conversation with the creators themselves.
This is a new category for 2022 which recognises the efforts of those companies which have embarked upon a transformation of its treasury function. Perhaps this has been the result of a need to replace outdated technology, the integration of a newly acquired company or simply a need to transform the way things are done. Overall Winner – Hiroyuki Ishiguro, General Manager, Treasury Section, Finance Dept HQ Japan, Gurmeet Jhita, General Manager, Head of Accounting, UK and Terry Vouvoudakis, Assistant Director, New York, Sony Group Corporation with Hirofumi Karata, Citi, Molly Walsh, J.P. Morgan and Lauren Koekkoek, Zanders. Highly Commended Winner – Palle Dedenroth, Assistant Group Treasurer, Danfoss A/S with Rebecca Bjuvling, Citi. Highly Commended Winner – Roberta Eiseman, President, Comcast Capital Corporation with Gaetan Okias J.P. Morgan and Damien McMahon, PwC.
This category covers any cash pooling solution; notional and/or physical. It could be a simple single currency/single country solution or regional/global, multi-entity/multi-currency solution. Overall Winner – Rene Bustamante, Staff Vice President & Assistant Treasurer, FedEx with Lori Schwartz, J.P. Morgan. Highly Commended Winner – DS Smith. Their partner Vivek Chikballapur, J.P. Morgan speaks about their winner collaboration and solution.
This category not only encompasses cards but recognises the emerging cash replacement solutions such as e-cash, digital currencies (crypto-currency/bitcoin) and e-wallets. The winning solution, including virtual cards, could cover any aspect of corporate cards and how they are being used to improve the T&E processes. Overall Winner – Werner Flaig, Group CFO, Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group. Highly Commended Winner – Careem Egypt for Smart Networks. Their partner Navin Bhatija, Citi speaks about their winner collaboration and solution. Highly Commended Winner – Waste Management. Their partner Jacqueline English, J.P. Morgan speaks about their winner collaboration and solution.
This is another new category this year and looks at how a company has implemented a treasury related solution, or is in the process of being implemented, on a regional basis – a regional solution is defined as five countries or more. Overall Winner – Andrew Grant, Assistant Treasurer, Neptune Energy Group Limited with Priyanka Rath, J.P. Morgan. Highly Commended Winner – Antoine Lebrun, Global Treasury Director and Lorena Gil, Global Treasury Manager, Glovo with Ross McEwan, Citi. Highly Commended Winner – Roshun Tulkens, Treasury, Mantrac SE with Suleman Jafrani, Citi.
Many corporates are exploring alternative sources of funding, diversifying and/or refinancing their funding sources. With an increase in M&A activity, we have seen many different types of funding submitted, whether a single transaction, or as part of a company's overall debt strategy. Overall Winner – Liam Ó Caoimh, VP Treasury, The Adecco Group. Highly Commended Winner – Mustafa Koçar, CFO and Nihal Yuksel, PF Director, Kalyon Holding, with Nazli Atilgan, J.P. Morgan.
This is a new category for 2022 which looks at sustainability and how corporate treasury can play it's part in addressing ESG issues, climate change and CO2 emissions. Overall Winner – Alex Ashby, Head of Treasury, Tesco. Highly Commended Winner – Page Group. Their partner Karl Adams, ICD speaks about their winner collaboration and solution. Highly Commended Winner – David Hanhart, Senior Director, Treasury, TEVA Pharmaceuticals.
This is a new category for 2022 which looks at how company's have implemented a treasury related solution, or is in the process of being implemented, in a single country or up to 4 countries and the challenges they have faced. Overall Winner – Greenlight Planet Kenya Ltd. Their partner Ferndinand Zaumu, Citi speaks about their winner collaboration and solution. Highly Commended Winner – Franca Aeby, Cash Manager, Roche Finanz AG. Highly Commended Winner – Henkel Algeria. Their partner Ouiza Zerka, Citi speaks about their winner collaboration and solution.
This is a new category for 2022 which looks at how companies address the emerging digital solutions. Overall Winner – Malcolm Grant, Chief of Treasury and Theresa de Gouveia, Senior Project Officer, International Organization for Migration. Highly Commended Winner – Alexander Van den Heuvel, Group Cash Manager, Richard Erven, Dealer Front Office and Ernst Janssen, Digital Treasury Manager, Royal DSM.
This is a new category for 2022 which looks at how companies manage/forecast its cash, working capital and how it makes and receives payments whether in a single or multi-purpose solution. Overall Winner – Magnus Attoff, Head of Digital Transformation & Risk Management, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson with Raymond Pereira, Citi. Highly Commended Winner – Marc Parenteau, VP Treasury North America and Jodi Fountain VP ecommerce and Marketplace, L’Oreal USA (SalonCentric) with Manish Jain, J.P. Morgan.
This category looks at foreign exchange and could be the use of technology, a new process, change to a hedging strategy or a new FX requirement as a result of entering a new market or dealing with a new currency and/or client/supplier. Overall Winner – Karen Kong, Treasurer, Broadcom inc with Jason Li, J.P. Morgan. Highly Commended Winner – Jennifer Chisholm, Business Program Manager and Tasha Westinghouse, Business Program Manager, Microsoft.
Our Woman of the Year category recognises a leading corporate treasury woman who demonstrates real innovation and professional achievement. Typifying the essence of Treasury Today's Women in Treasury initiative, this award goes to those who, alongside their career journey, also dedicate themselves to inspire others, giving back and using their privilege and access to help other professionals along their journey, opening up the profession to more diverse talent. Overall Winner – Lisa Chan, Director of Global Treasury, Airbnb. Highly Commended Winner – Jayna Bundy, General Manager, Microsoft.
Trading internationally can be challenging and the past 12 months or so have really shone the light on supply chains. The buyer/seller relationship has never been more important and we have seen a number of innovative solutions emerge from distributor finance, pre-shipment finance and receivables discounting to forfaiting, factoring and payables finance. Overall Winner – Alan Chitty, Director of Group Treasury, Tax and Risk, Pepco Group in partnership with Mehwish Jangda at Citi.
Technology is a key component in many of the submissions we receive and is always a hotly contested category. We see projects ranging from the use of APIs and RPA to full-blown treasury technology transformation involving TMS and ERP integration and much more. Overall Winner – Nike. Their partner Sara Castelhano, J.P. Morgan speaks about their winner collaboration and solution. Highly Commended Winner – Kellogg's. Their partner Duncan Cole, Citi speaks about their winner collaboration and solution. Highly Commended Winner – Kitopi. Their partner Muhannad Abdeljawad, HSBC speaks about their winner collaboration and solution. Highly Commended Winner – Nigeria LNG, Chigbo Enenmo, Head of Treasury in partnership with Vikas Kapoor, J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
Our most prestigious and always fiercely-contested category. Here we recognise a corporate treasury team that has made an outstanding contribution to its organisation over the past 12-18 months. Overall Winner – AstraZeneca, Jonathan Slade, Group Treasurer. Highly Commended Winner – Prudential Financial, Nandini Mongia, Senior Vice President & Treasurer.
As risk continues to be top of every treasurer's agenda; our winners provide their solutions relating to all aspects of risk which arise in the corporate treasury arena. From foreign exchange risk, counterparty risk, commodity risk and interest rate risk to cyber risk, reputational risk and supply chain risk, all are covered here. It feels like corporates have never had more risks to manage, making this an ever-increasing critical responsibility for the treasury function. Overall Winner – DEME, Geert Wouters, Head of Finance & Treasury along with their partner PwC. Highly Commended Winner – Microsoft Ireland Operation Ltd, Jatin Mohanty, Senior Manager Finance.
Here we recognise how these winners have optimised and/or diversified their short, medium and long-term investment portfolio whilst addressing the trade-off between yield, liquidity, cash preservation and counterparty risk. Looking at alternative investment vehicles and how they have overcome the challenges of low/negative interest rates and new regulations in the world of liquidity/money market funds (MMFs). Overall Winner – General Electric. Their partner Citi speaks about their winner collaboration and solution. Highly Commended Winner – Christopher Berris, Hunting Plc.
This is awarded to a company which is that little bit different, doesn't quite fit one of the other categories and is recognised by our judges as a result of the specific field in which the company operates, the particular solution it has implemented or simply because it stands out as being different. This year's Judges' Choice award goes to the first company to allow investors to buy and trade shares in multi-million-dollar masterpieces created by world-renowned artists. The company has implemented a solution which manages the underlying transactions and reconciliations of the aforementioned investors. Overall Winner – Masterworks, Francisco Meyo, Controller, Investment Vehicles and Jason Papadopoulos, Business Intelligence Manager.
Here we recognise an individual corporate treasurer who has made a real difference to their organisation. The person has demonstrated real innovation, achievement, leadership qualities, and someone who is a real inspiration to others. Our winner in 2022 has built a 'best-in-class' treasury function at his organisation during a career spanning over a decade of contribution across a broad range of treasury responsibilities. Overall Winner – Toby Shore, Senior Director, Group Treasury, Risk & Insurance, Emirates Global Aluminium.
Overall Winner – TriNet Group, Inc., Ryan Yeager, Executive Director & Assistant Treasurer. Highly Commended Winner – ACCO Brands, Agata Przezdziecka, AR Manager, in partnership with Bank of America. Highly Commended Winner – Norsk Hydro ASA, Per Christian Lindgård, Head of Cash Management and Erik Snersrud, Manager Cash Management, in partnership with J.P. Morgan. LAST EPISODE IN THE SERIES: This new category for 2021 addresses the emergence of digitisation. We have heard much about the fintech revolution, open banking, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, robotics, APIs, blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies. We look at companies which have moved beyond the ‘proof of concept’ stage and are now using one or more of these emerging fintech/digital solutions.
Overall Winner – International Company for Water and Power Projects ACWA Power, Abdul Majid Syed, VP Financial Reporting, Controls and System, in partnership with J.P. Morgan. Highly Commended Winner – Delivery Hero, Christian Schmahl, Director Treasury, Gerald Taylor, Senior Treasury Manager and Khaled Al Faqsh, CFO. Any company that has implemented a treasury solution, or is in the process of being implemented, in the Middle East and/or UAE qualified, including Shariah compliant/Islamic banking solutions. This could be a single country solution or span several countries across the region.
Overall Winner – Bridgestone, Julle Pedersen, Treasury Director for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMIA). Highly Commended Winner – Tetra Pak International, Fabrice d'Agostino, Director Business Control Supply Management, in partnership with Citi. Highly Commended Winner – Halliburton, Richard Whiles, Assistant Treasurer, in partnership with Citi. Trading internationally can be challenging and the past 12 months or so have really shone the light on supply chains. The buyer/seller relationship has never been more important and we have seen a number of innovative solutions emerge from distributor finance, pre-shipment finance and receivables discounting to forfaiting, factoring and payables finance.
Overall Winner – Marathon Petroleum Co, Kevin Kachur, Treasury Operations Supervisor and Jon Martin, Treasury – Cash & Banking, Adv. Financial Analyst. Highly Commended Winner – Baker Hughes Company, Varun Wadhwa, Deputy Treasurer, in partnership with Bank of America. In this new category we showcase any treasury solution across our broad range of mainstream categories that has been implemented, or is in the process of being implemented in the Americas. This could be a US or Canada only solution or perhaps involve Central America, Latin America or the Caribbean.
Highly Commended Winner – NTT Data, Meredith Vance, Senior Vice President Treasurer. Our most prestigious and always fiercely-contested category. Here we recognise a corporate treasury team that has made an outstanding contribution to its organisation over the past 12-18 months.
Overall Winner – HCSC Blue Cross Blue Shield, David Deranek, CTP – Director, Enterprise Treasury Operations and Julie Qualiato, CTP – Senior Director, Enterprise Treasury Operations. Highly Commended Winner – Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Stacy Liparidis, Associate Director, Treasury, in partnership with ICD. Highly Commended Winner – Unilever Finance International AG, Gerard Tuinenberg, Director Systems, Innovations and Transactional Banking. Technology is a key component in many of the submissions we receive and is always a hotly contested category. We see projects ranging from the use of APIs and RPA to full-blown treasury technology transformation involving TMS and ERP integration and much more.
Winner - Elanco Animal Health, David Pugh, Treasurer, in partnership with J.P. Morgan. Highly Commended – Tesco plc, Pritesh Vadolia, Head of Treasury – Risk. This category incorporates any relationship (internal as well as external) managed by the treasury function, such as investor relations, employee relations, ratings agencies and procurement, in addition to the core bank and service provider relationships. Economic turmoil and the coronavirus pandemic have certainly focused minds on the value of relationships.
Overall Winner – George Zinn. In 2021, for just the second time in our awards history, we have awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award. This recognises an individual who has made a phenomenal contribution to both the treasury profession and the industry as a whole. This year we are delighted to award George Zinn with our Lifetime Achievement Award. This is in honour of his remarkable tenure at Microsoft and of his lasting, positive impact on the global treasury and corporate finance community.
Overall Winner – Dana Inc., Michael Lenaerts, Senior Manager of Finance, in partnership with J.P. Morgan. Highly Commended Winner – Cooke Seafood, Rob MacNeil, Group Treasurer. Any solution which demonstrates how the company manages or forecasts its cash is recognised here. At the heart of treasury sits cash management and "Cash is King" is a frequently used phrase. This is therefore a consistently popular category amongst our nominees.
Overall Winner – Avis Budget Group, David Calabria, Treasurer and SVP of Corporate Finance and Tina Daroszewski, Assistant Treasurer, in partnership with J.P. Morgan. Highly Commended Winner – Microsoft Corporation, Neil Doyle, Group Finance Manager, in partnership with Accenture. Highly Commended Winner – Kimberly-Clark Brazil, Denilson Da Silva, Credits & Collections Manager Brazil, in partnership with Citi. This new category recognises the challenges specifically posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to showcase the Herculean efforts that have been demonstrated in response to the demands of the new normal. There have been some extraordinary examples of best practice that we feel deserve special recognition this year.
Overall Winner – MultiChoice Group Ltd, Jan Beukes, Group Treasurer, in partnership with Citi and Finastra. Highly Commended Winner – Microsoft Corporation, Rahul Daswani, Group Manager, GTFS. Any company that has implemented a treasury solution, or is in the process of being implemented, in Africa qualified for this award. This might be a single country solution or perhaps span several countries across the Continent.
Overall Winner – Phung Ngo-Burns, Chief Accounting Officer & Treasurer, NexTier Completion Solutions. Highly Commended Winner – Nandini Mongia, Senior Vice President and Treasurer, Prudential Financial, Inc. Our Woman of the Year category recognises a leading corporate treasury woman who demonstrates real innovation and professional achievement. Typifying the essence of Treasury Today’s Women in Treasury initiative, this award goes to those who, alongside their career journey, also dedicate themselves to inspire others, giving back and using their privilege and access to help other professionals along their journey, opening up the profession to more diverse talent.
Overall Winner – NexTier Completion Solutions, Bernie Liu, Treasury Manager, in partnership with Citi. Highly Commended – Royal Palace Furniture, Suman Ghosh, CFO. This is another new category in 2021 to not only encompass cards but to recognise the emerging cash replacement solutions such as e-cash, digital currencies (crypto-currency/bitcoin) and e-wallets. Winning solutions, including virtual cards, can cover any aspect of corporate cards and how they are being used to improve the T&E processes.
Overall Winner – Hyundai Motor Europe, Heeyong Kwon, Regional Treasurer, in partnership with Citi. Highly Commended Winner – TÜRKİYE ŞİŞE ve CAM FABRİKALARI A.Ş., Baris Gokalp, Global Head of Treasury and Cihan Catakli, Corporate Finance Specialist. Cyber-security continues to be a major issue for companies of all shapes and sizes, with most household names having been victims of cyber-crime past, present and future. We look here at how organisations are mitigating the threat of a cyber-attack.
Overall Winner – Farfetch, Alexander Krenitskiy, Group Treasury Manager, in partnership with J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Highly Commended Winner – International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Malcolm Grant, Head of Treasury and Marion Barré, Senior Treasury Officer. Highly Commended Winner – Whitbread Group, Becki Carroll, Front Office Treasury Dealer, in partnership with Goldman Sachs Asset Management and ION. This category is extended this year to include short, medium and long-term investments to showcase how organisations have optimised and/or diversified their investment portfolio, particularly important in a low/negative interest rate environment. We look at how they have addressed the trade-off between yield, liquidity, cash preservation and counterparty risk or perhaps considered ESG factors when investing.
Overall Winner – Wärtsilä, Jarmo Nurmi, Corporate Treasurer and Erik Snersrud, Manager Cash Management. Highly Commended Winner – Microsoft, Priya Shenoy, Senior Finance Manager. Risk continues to be top of every treasurer's agenda. From foreign exchange risk, counterparty risk, commodity risk and interest rate risk to cyber risk, reputational risk and supply chain risk, all are covered here. It feels like corporates have never had more risks to manage, making this an ever-increasing critical responsibility for the treasury function.
Overall Winner – RHI Magnesita, Felix Warmuth, Head of Treasury and Rodrigo Guerra, Head of Corporate Treasury, in partnership with Bank of America. Highly Commended Winner – Medtronic, John Murray, Director Americas Enterprise Excellence & Business Transformation. Highly Commended Winner – Atlas Copco, Dilan Narin, Business Controller, in partnership with Citi. Efficient working capital is a key challenge for corporates of all shapes and sizes. This is all about improving key performance indicators (KPIs) of DPO, DSO, DIO, DWC and the cash conversion cycle.
Overall Winner – Tesco plc, Lynda Heywood, Group Treasurer. Highly Commended Winner – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Michael Ben Moshe, Senior Director, Head of Financial Risk & Cash Management, Corporate Treasury, in partnership with Finastra. This category looks at the foreign exchange solutions that corporates are deploying to tackle the continuing challenges of currency volatility. From technology to new processes, change to a hedging strategy or a new FX requirement as a result of entering a new market, or dealing with a new currency and/or client or supplier could drive the solutions here.
Overll Winner – Dubai Municipality, Lubna Khamis Almazrouie, Senior Accountant, Finance Department – General Budget Section. Highly Commended Winner, Best AP Solution – The Hut Group, Ian Armstrong, Group Treasurer, in partnership with Citi. Highly Commended Winner, Best AR Solution – CDK Global LLC, Kirti Talwar, Senior Director, Finance Shared Services. Payments and receipts are key to any business. How do companies negotiate improved payment terms with their suppliers? We have seen an increase in the use of shared service centres and payment factories in recent years and Payment-on-Behalf-of (POBO) structures are a lot more common now. We also look at how companies manage their collections, including reconciliation and, as with payments, we are now seeing Collection-on-Behalf-of or COBO structures emerging.
Winner – Phoenix, Hana Harrison, Assistant Treasurer & Head of Funding. Highly Commended – Rolls-Royce plc, Ed Prince, Head of Corporate Finance, in partnership with Citi. Many corporates are exploring alternative sources of funding, diversifying and/or refinancing their funding sources. With an increase in M&A activity, we have seen many different types of funding submitted, whether a single transaction, or as part of a company's overall debt strategy.
Winner – Etihad Aviation Group, Daniel Tromans, Group Treasurer. Highly Commended – Holcim, Nicolas Vaniet, Head Financing & Treasury Front Office. Highly Commended – Royal Schiphol Group, Tom Gerritson, Head of Treasury and M&A, in partnership with BlackRock. Highly Commended – Durr AG, Christian Aue, VP Corporate Finance. Here we look at sustainable projects including the finance related to the mitigation of and/or adaptation to climate change/CO2 emissions as well as investment strategies which incorporate ESG/CSR factors.
Overall Winner – Martin Schlageter, Head of Treasury Operations, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. We have created this new category to recognise an individual corporate treasurer who has made a real difference to their organisation, who demonstrates innovation and achievement and who is an inspiration in their current role.
Overall Winner – Angela Brown, Assistant Treasurer, Continental Tire the Americas, LLC. This category recognises talent coming through the corporate treasury ranks. The individual may have excelled in a professional qualification or may be a future Finance Director or CFO.
We are delighted to launch our Adam Smith Awards 2021 – A Winner's Guide podcast series. In this first short episode I will explain what the Adam Smith Awards are, why you should consider nominating and the key dates for your diaries. Nominations open on 25th January and close on 12th April 2021.
In this Episode, we explain the criteria for entry, some tips to aide your submissions and what our judges look for when making their decisions. Nominations are now open and will close on 12th April 2021.
In this Episode, we explore the new categories we have added this year. A full list of categories can be found online at treasurytoday.com. Nominations are now open and will close on 12th April 2021.