The rise of the Corporate Treasurer

Our treasury team are currently seeing Treasurers operating at a more senior level than ever before with the CFO leaning on them heavily when it comes to strategic financial decisions for the group. As corporate boards form Brexit committees and begin to lay down plans for the impact of one of the most significant macro-economic changes of our time, treasurers are taking a key seat at this table.

Treasurers will be key decision-makers when it comes to defining a Brexit strategy and those that can successfully navigate the challenges around risk management and are able to drive policy changes to ensure that their company is adapting in an agile and timely manner will find themselves well established to step up into the C-Suite.

We will see Treasurers taking bigger roles over the next 5 to 10 years as corporates rely on them even more to drive M&A activity, strategic decision-making and to define policy changes in-line with regulatory updates.

Treasurers are well prepared to become CFOs for many reasons, they are commercial and forward-thinking with strong negotiation skills. The banking relationships and wider networks they hold ensure they are well connected to the business community. Finally, their analytical and technical skillset means they are well placed to make strategic group decisions and to anticipate the possible outcome of them.

However, even though the role of the treasurer is increasingly varied and many treasurers now also have responsibility for pensions, insurance and sometimes tax, their profile is still narrower than that of the CFO. Therefore, the biggest obstacle treasurers face is being viewed as too narrow in their experience. The Executive Board will want a CFO with broad experience and it is more difficult to move from being the treasurer of one business to the CFO of another, most treasurers that successfully make the leap do so internally.

Nevertheless, we expect to see more treasury professionals going on to become CFOs and, whilst every individual’s career path is unique, Treasury is the perfect environment to start honing your talents for the Boardroom in the future. View the latest Treasury jobs we are working on.