Cash is the common thread that connects all the moving parts from operations to strategy. And for Brenda Leong, the most interesting aspect of treasury is the opportunity it presents to gain a holistic view of activity across the organisation – a front-row seat to the business.
“Cash is the main currency that drives all the business units within the organisation,” she says. “So, as treasurer, you have a clear bird’s eye view over all the activities on the cash inflows and outflows of what’s happening across the board.” For Brenda, such visibility means treasurers are often among the first to spot industry shifts or new business needs, and that naturally sharpens business sense.
She adds that treasury is one of the key parties within an organisation when it comes to hearing about developing industry trends or new business opportunities: “We’re closely connected to most of the functional units across the company.” She reveals that this unique vantage point allows treasury to anticipate needs early and puts treasurers in a unique position to anticipate business needs before they land and shape the responses.
By connecting all these dots, Brenda says treasurers are then in a strong and unique position to identify new business needs and anticipate the knock-on effect for treasury before it materialises. “In other words, I could go to IT and say that we need this tool because the business has this new requirement. When business change eventually flows into treasury, this is what I will need to make everything work,” she explains. “So that’s the interesting part of treasury – it’s effectively a conduit within the organisation.”
Making the leap: from banking to treasury
Brenda’s career began in the banking sector, where she held various middle and front-office roles for several financial institutions. In her first role, she worked with Citibank’s treasury team and supported the various trading desks. But after taking on a series of front office, middle and back office roles for different banks, she decided to move her career in a different direction.
“Until then, I had been working on the bank side,” she recalls, adding that over time, she felt drawn to the other side. “I wanted to take a look at the corporate side and find out what actually drives companies to approach banks for cash management or FX solutions.” That curiosity prompted a shift into treasury and led her to the corporate world.
Charting new paths in treasury: career moves
After making the move into corporate treasury, Brenda navigated treasury roles in diverse sectors. “So, for the last 15 years, I’ve moved across the trading industry, shipping and technology sectors,” she says. Even though different industries have their own business models, she asserts that the skillset of a treasurer is readily transferable. During her career, she has successfully implemented treasury management systems, developed regional policies, led M&A support, and set up overseas shared service centres.
Her previous roles include Assistant Treasury Manager at Mitsubishi Corporation Finance & Consulting, where her responsibilities included treasury accounting for consolidated IFRS group reporting and hedging group funding, foreign currency and interest rate exposures. As Treasury Manager at IMC Industrial Group, Brenda subsequently designed a new treasury and hedging policy, managed vessel financing and led a treasury shared service team in overseeing the reconciliation of hundreds of bank accounts for group cash management.
More recently, as Senior Treasury Manager (APAC) at technology firm NCR Corporation, Brenda was responsible for setting up a new treasury team in Singapore to remotely manage treasury activities across Asia Pacific during the Covid-19 lockdown period. Her responsibilities in this post also included tackling challenges such as freeing up trapped cash from China and contributing to pre-deal and post-deal activities for M&A transactions.
In 2023, Brenda took up the role of APAC Treasurer at a newly formed brand for logistics and supply chain solutions, PSA BDP, where she manages the regional treasury operations post-acquisition. She is currently gearing up for her next global role in Dubai.
Human skill is the new power skill
For Brenda, an important aspect of treasury is the role it can play in helping the business on its roadmap towards growth. “Treasury has much to give as a partner that can offer advice to help the company with its strategic planning,” she says.
Her experience navigating APAC’s regulatory patchwork has taught her the value of clear, nuanced communication. “In APAC, for example, each country is a different animal, with disparate in-country regulations. You have to be able to guide the finance team and explain why solutions that work for one country in the region might not work for another.” While treasury may be rooted in systems and numbers, she finds this kind of advisory role is where treasury adds real value.
During her treasury career, Brenda has had to manage stakeholders across multiple regions and countries, in addition to assessing tasks and prioritising them based on their criticality. As such, she views the ability to work effectively with stakeholders as a key component of a treasury skillset. While technical know-how is important, Brenda emphasises that it is the human side of the treasury role which makes the biggest difference – how one engages with people across the business.
Treasury has much to give as a partner that can offer advice to help the company with its strategic planning.
In the past, she observes, treasurers often needed larger teams, with different people specialising in specific activities such as loan financing, hedging and cash management. “Today, you can outsource much of the technical works to banks,” she says. The key challenge is the delegation of relationship management – guiding stakeholders, influencing decisions, and adapting to different cultural and business contexts.
She believes that treasury is more than just managing cash flows – “it’s a strategic window into how a business truly operates.” Hence, it is critical to possess the ability to navigate complexity with clarity, empathy and foresight.
Likewise, Brenda highlights the importance of working proactively with other functions within the organisation, such as taking the initiative in vetting agreements before formal review by the legal team. “Over the years, I’ve acquired some knowledge in terms of how the legal wording should be drafted,” she notes. “That can be helpful in streamlining the amount of time and effort needed when the legal team needs to work on it.”
Banking on strong relationships
Brenda’s earlier career in banking has also shaped how she works with financial institutions, which has given her a deeper understanding of how to build constructive relationships with bankers. “We speak the same lingo, and when it comes to something like getting a credit facility, it helps to know which risk factors the banks are looking at,” she comments. “It means we can dive in and get things sorted out pretty quickly.”
And after eight years’ experience in the banking industry, Brenda has an in-depth understanding of different banks’ corporate cultures, and how they typically go about securing internal approvals. “For example, I might know from experience that it’s better to approach a particular bank from the top down – this type of nuance can really help to minimise the challenges.” Such insight helps her address business demands more efficiently by expediting the overall processes when challenges arise.
Brenda is also keenly focused on the importance of building strong relationships with banks – and if something can’t be done, she focuses on understanding the constraints, instead of relentlessly pushing forward. Long-term relationships mean knowing when to compromise. She adds, “It’s important to cultivate a long-term relationship with your banks, which sometimes means picking your battles and being prepared to give way on certain points. You can’t always have everything exactly the way you want it!” That fluency has helped her build long-standing, trust-based relationships with financial institutions.
Broader horizons: creativity, culture and collaboration
Outside work, Brenda enjoys the arts – theatre, music and travel – all of which help her approach problems with creativity and an open mind.
Brenda says she has a strong appreciation of cultural creativity, including musical performances and theatrical plays – an interest that she ties back to her approach to treasury. Staying creative helps her to stay flexible as she perceives that every new challenge needs a different lens.
“Treasury can sometimes be very structured and process-based, with a heavy focus on standard operating procedures (SOPs) and compliance frameworks,” she reflects. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t be nimble and agile whenever we face a new problem or a new challenge.”
As Brenda points out, treasury professionals often need to collaborate with people from different backgrounds and regions across the organisation, which makes it particularly important to collaborate in a way that is well-informed by an understanding of different cultures – something she sees as essential in a globally connected profession. Sometimes that means adjusting her tone; sometimes it’s about language. In her words, cultural sensitivity really matters.
“For example, I think about how to speak to a counterpart based in India in a manner that makes them comfortable engaging with me,” says Brenda. “That might be different to the approach I take when speaking to my counterpart in China, who might be absolutely fluent in English, but may still prefer to speak to me in their local language.” Given the connected nature of treasury, she says, “It’s so important to be culturally sensitive when you’re thinking about your communication strategy.”
Professional development: always evolving
Finally, where professional development is concerned, Brenda has earned a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) designation, which sets the standard in the treasury profession. This provides her with instant access to peers within the global network of the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP). She is also a key member of the APAC Treasury Advisory Council, which enables her to share best practices and innovative initiatives with the corporate treasury practitioner community in the Asia Pacific region.
Adding to her treasury speciality combo toolkit, which enables her to identify red flags quickly during integrations – from hidden liabilities, cultural mismatches and regulatory traps to post-deal chaos – Brenda has expanded beyond treasury to obtain International Mergers and Acquisitions Expert (IM&A) and Post Merger Integration Expert (CPMI) certifications from the Institute for Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances (IMAA).
Overall, Brenda’s approach to treasury blends strategic thinking with a deep respect for people, process, and culture – key qualities that have helped her lead through complexity and change. As such, she finds a career in treasury to be dynamic, meaningful and full of growth – both personally and professionally.
