Treasury Today’s Future Treasury & Finance Leaders Forum (FTFLF) Amsterdam, held in April, provided the space for European finance professionals and treasurers – many of whom are past winners of our flagship Adam Smith Awards, which recognise prowess in the corporate treasury arena – to come together, network and debate best practice, as well as take a deep dive into award-winning projects.
The Amsterdam forum, sponsored by HSBC and Zycus, is part of a global programme to create an exclusive group of treasury and finance pioneers spanning major business hubs such as Mumbai, Dubai and Silicon Valley.
Sophie Jackson, CEO of Treasury Today Group, and Joy Macknight, editorial contributor, co-chaired the event, inviting participants to share their experiences of the awards programme and how best practice is developing within the industry.
“Winning an award is an independent external validation for the function, the individual and the company, and that itself carries value among treasury, finance and audit professionals,” said Preet Dhupar, Group BRC Manager, Ingka Group.
Treasury trailblazers
The opening panel in Amsterdam discussed the evolution of best practice and showcased two repeat winners in our Adam Smith Awards, Nike and Avery Dennison.
Annabelle Diepenhorst, CEO, HSBC The Netherlands, observed on the recognition that winning an award brings, as well as the kudos in the industry that can help attract top-level talent. “These awards showcase the next level for the treasury community,” she said. “Similar to concept of open source in the technology space, winners are openly sharing lessons learnt.”
Avery Dennison is a multiple Adam Smith Award winner. In 2022, the global materials and digital identification solutions company picked up the Highly Commended Best ESG Solution in the Adam Smith Awards Asia, and then in 2024 it was awarded the Highly Commended accolade for Best Risk Management Solution for the way it hedges foreign exchange (FX) risk.
The challenge treasury faced was the steeply rising costs associated with fully hedging its FX exposure. The solution was to apply efficient frontier analysis, which is based on value at risk (VaR). “We take the benefit of the correlations and volatility in the currencies to hedge each exposure less than 100%. It is then possible to save on the cost of hedging with limited risk parameters,” explained Ramón Tolk, Senior Director Treasury, EMEA Treasury Centre at Avery Dennison.
Treasury began by using Excel spreadsheets, which proved too time consuming. In a great example of co-creation, the team worked with Kyriba FiREapps to develop the automated VaR approach. “We can run it with several parameters and create a whole curve that we can use,” said Tolk. “We receive the results more quickly and we can fine tune the way we use the model faster. The fact that it’s running in an automated environment with specific IT controls is also a big plus.”
Nike is likewise a repeated award-winning treasury. In 2022, Nike Global Trading picked up the Highly Commended Best Foreign Exchange Solution in the Adam Smith Awards Asia. The same year, Nike also won the Harnessing the Power of Technology accolade with its multi-currency, multi-level virtual account structure.
Jarno Timmerman, Treasury Director EMEA at Nike, spoke about the latter project, which was initiated as a result of an enterprise simplification project where the company was consolidating its legal entity structure. Treasury implemented a full virtual structure, which still allowed it to achieve full visibility of information from a management reporting perspective, as well as a collection and reconciliation perspective.
He highlighted the criticality of having the right talent, as well as the right tools and banking partners. A good partnership with IT is also a requirement for success, he added. “Working with IT, whether in Nike or other companies, is always complex. It’s not necessarily a lack of knowledge – although implementing treasury tooling requires niche expertise – but a tussle for scarce IT resources,” said Timmerman.
He believes that accessing IT resources necessitates a strong business case. “We try to build a business case around qualitative and quantitative benefits. In our case, we were able to safeguard certain valuable information, providing access, visibility and control. We quantified the cost savings associated, closing many bank accounts. We could reduce almost 50% of our infrastructure and replace it with a virtual structure, which is cheaper,” he explained.
All panellists agreed that to respond quickly to developments, treasury needs to foster an innovative culture by constantly looking outside their organisations. As such, they believe it’s important to be talking to peers, bankers, technology providers and consultants to understand what’s new and stay ahead of the curve.
“It’s about being open minded, adaptable and sharing best practice,” explains Diepenhorst. “It’s also important to create a safe environment where it’s okay to make mistakes, so that you can move to the next level.”
Always advancing
A common theme in the roundtable discussions on best practice and innovation was that treasury had to be continually forward-looking, rethinking best practice and upping its game.
“It’s important to remain agile and ensure to review your structures often, to see what you can make simpler, automate and where you can gain the next advantage,” said Julia Donegan, Global Treasury Director, Newell Brands.
Franca Aeby, Senior Treasury Manager Front Office – Financing and Markets at Roche, suggested having stretch targets included in annual key performance indicators or goals. Peter Graham, Regional Treasury Director at Ricoh Europe, said that for the annual objective-setting process, he asks each member of his team, including graduates, to come up with three ideas. “Graduates bring fresh ideas and perspectives. They may not turn into best practice necessarily, but they might suggest things that save time, energy and money,” he added.
Fostering a curious mindset also helps treasury to advance, according to Dennis Baljeu, Director and Head of Treasury, Toyota Industries Europe and Vanderlande. “We regularly have team discussions on emerging technology, for example, and encourage people to bring suggestions,” he explained. He agrees with Aeby that including targets in team members’ performance objectives is a good idea.
Baljeu emphasised that treasury is part of the larger corporate entity and therefore should always be thinking about what is best for the company overall. “Sometimes it’s easier to make an improvement within your smaller treasury team, and maybe it’s more difficult in the wider corporate environment which has more stakeholders, but the focus on improvement should aim to add value to the company,” he advised.
Cross-functional collaboration
Treasury and finance practitioners are navigating increased volatility, supply chain difficulties, heightened geopolitical tensions, fraud threats and regulatory pressure, which are leading to tighter liquidity management needs. Yet many treasury departments still have a plethora of manual and Excel spreadsheet-based processes, which makes it difficult to come to grips with the complex risk landscape.
“Reliance on spreadsheets has an additional risk: when the person who built the cash flow forecasting spreadsheet leaves, then treasury has a problem because no one understands how it has been constructed,” said Emi Miki, Sales Executive at Nomentia, a cash and treasury management solution provider.
“Greater automation can help consolidate operations and deliver improved insights, provide better operational resilience and create more value,” added Caroline Lacocque, Regional Vice President Benelux, Nordics South and Africa at Zycus, which develops agentic artificial intelligence (AI)-powered procurement software solutions.
Nomentia and Zycus have teamed up to solve another problem for treasury and finance teams: improving cross-collaboration with other departments, such as procurement, through automated data sharing.
Best practice in fostering closer relationships is a perennial topic discussed at FTFLFs around the globe, as most treasurers are acutely aware of the business value that can be realised through enhanced collaboration between treasury and procurement, particularly in supply chain finance (SCF) programmes.
“Greater collaboration will lead to better end-to-end visibility from supplier sourcing to payment execution and reconciliation. And if a system can provide visibility and synergies between the two departments, that will deliver a better view on cash flow,” according to Lacocque. “For example, if the sourcing events and the supplier contract renewals are integrated into the treasury management system, then the treasurer will have much better cash flow forecasting because all the information will appear in the dashboard.”
When procurement and treasury collaborate effectively, the treasurer can also optimise working capital, have less financial risk and have more bottom line benefits. “Through collaboration, it is possible to develop an easy working capital optimisation structure that can then create value for the corporate,” she added.
Building an outstanding team
The second half of the Amsterdam event explored purpose, personal journeys and navigating career paths. The afternoon began with a panel that profiled two treasury team members from Roche, another multi award-winning treasury. The team has been recognised more than a dozen times since the Swiss multinational healthcare company won its first award in 2011 for its global SCF solution. Most recently, it was awarded Highly Commended in the Best Risk Management category for 2025. It’s an impressive record and comes down to innovation being embedded in Roche’s DNA, according to Marco Reich, Cash Manager, Group Treasury.
“We don’t limit ourselves to the development of life-saving medicines and innovative healthcare solutions. It’s also important for us in finance, including treasury, to be at the forefront of innovation,” explained Reich. “Treasury has a key role to ensure that the company adapts quickly to this fast-changing environment. As such, we upgrade our systems on a regular basis to maintain the highest standards and make use of the newest tools and technologies. We also make use of advanced analytics and AI to become even better.”
While technology is an enabler, Reich recognised the team as the engine driving innovation. “This mindset is lived not only by our treasury leaders but by everyone in the team. We all try to improve the treasury function, including the new joiners who bring in fresh ideas. This mix has proven to be very effective,” he said.
“Because we’ve won a few awards, each time we try to build something new and approach a bank, the expectations are high from both sides because we want it to be best in class,” added Aeby, winner of A Rising Star award in 2023. “The bank also knows they’re under pressure to deliver, otherwise we might have to consider other providers that better suit our requirements.”
Roche has achieved two major milestones over the years: treasury centralisation and building an in-house bank (IHB). “Today, every treasury operation goes through the IHB: the payment factory, intercompany netting and hedging FX exposure,” said Aeby. “Once an IHB is established, then you can go beyond treasury.
“For example, we started doing payments, collections, tax and salary payments-on-behalf-of (POBO). We developed a centralised in-house e-banking system. We also partnered with different parts of the organisation, such as with procurement on a SCF programme and other projects. We’re a trusted advisor within the organisation when it comes to M&A and the ensuing integration,” she explained.
Building a high-performing team and achieving best practice by marrying technical and essential skill sets starts with collaboration based on open and effective communication, not only within the team but also with stakeholders and particularly with IT, according to Reich. “We aim high with our purpose, which is ‘doing now what patients need next’. Our purpose translates into long-term ambitions. We are dedicated to continuous improvement – this spirit is lived in the company,” he said. “We inspire with empowerment and accountability.”
From the first day Reich joined Roche as an intern, he was not only involved in the daily operations, but also assigned to a specific project. “The expected outcome was clear, but the way to achieve it, where to invest resources, etc was up to me. This freedom and trust helped me achieve the goal,” he explained. Impressively, almost half of the personnel in the core treasury team started as interns/students or are currently enrolled in an internship.
Roche has a strong alignment of purpose or “ikigai” as the Japanese say. “As a pharmaceutical company, every decision we take is patient centric. Some may argue that finance or treasury doesn’t have an immediate impact on the outcome of a clinical trial, for example, but we manage money for investment in life-saving medicines,” Reich said.
“It’s the purpose that keeps people motivated. Even though we work with money like at any other company, it still gives us a good feeling when we go home at night. This is something that everyone in our treasury organisation highly values and lives by,” added Aeby.
Essential skills and career progression
Another recurrent topic at FTFLFs is how to reskill, upskill and future-proof your career as a treasurer, as well as attract and retain talent in the treasury team. Jackson argued that “soft skills” should be rendered obsolete and instead referred to as “essential skills”.
“The term ‘soft skills’ is a way of minimising the fact that it’s quite important that you know how to communicate, how to lead and how to be happy as a human,” she explained.
During the roundtable discussions, many touched on the need to stay curious, learn from others and continue experimenting, particularly in light of tech developments such as ChatGPT and generative AI.
“In a fast moving world, if you keep thinking and not moving, you can lose momentum,” warned Aigerim Bekzhanova, Finance Transformation Programme Manager at Vanderlande.
“It’s important to actually use AI tools – experimenting is how you learn and see what works for you, not just hear what others are doing,” agreed Päivi Paananen, Senior Technology Specialist – Banking and Payments at Booking.com. “Being curious, for example, means asking IT to do something and also finding out how they’re doing it. By working with others and understanding their methods, you may be able to see more opportunities for the same investment.”
Alexander van den Heuvel, Director Treasury Operations at dsm-firmenich, highlighted the fact that many colleagues from other departments may hold the required knowledge or information. “If you invite a colleague for lunch, you will get all the information that you want tailored to the specific situation,” he added.
To attract and retain talent, many pointed to the need to create a full package outlining career possibilities, provide mentoring, training and other elements, as well as giving new joiners the freedom to drive their own agenda. Some have put in place an annual personal development plan, which helps staff expand their skill set.
Health and wellbeing is also moving up the corporate agenda. Timmerman spoke about Nike’s policies, such as an hour of sports a day, Friday afternoons off during the summer and no system of holidays, so employees can take time off when they need to.
Iain Currie, Director, Treasury Operations, Prologis, stressed the need for managers to understand each team member and help manage their workload. “There are different cultures, different people and different ways of working,” he said. “Being in the office or working from home is all good, as long as you balance that out with understanding the person sitting beside you or working for you.”
