This year’s Top Treasury Team Award goes to the treasury team at Google. They have quite simply set the benchmark for best practice and, especially, innovation with the projects they have implemented, or are in the process of implementing.
These range from outsourcing and risk management to technology and even the development of the first ‘green’ trading room. A true team effort which the judging panel feels is an exceptional contribution to the company and to the corporate treasury profession as a whole – a most worthy winner.
When Treasury Today spoke to Brent Callinicos, VP and Treasurer at Google in April 2009, he said “As in most companies, Google is very focused on capital preservation versus yield right now and we are spending a lot of time managing counterparty and issuer risk. The current climate does put a little bit more of a light on treasury. It also makes it easier to see if you have something that you need to improve in terms of a policy or an approach or a system.
The financial crisis hasn’t really taught us things we didn’t know already, but it has helped validate some of the things we had built into our policies, as well as some of the things we are doing from a systems standpoint.
We have a lot to execute upon and measure, so in every one of those areas that I’ve mentioned, we have an agenda in terms of what we’re trying to achieve – this is not about maintaining the status quo, but rather about raising the bar. In almost all of these areas we are installing a system or two, and we have a lot of great people.
“We are honoured to receive these Awards.”
Brent Callinicos, VP and Treasurer, Google
Plus you have extremely volatile financial markets – it’s simply not an environment that allows anyone to rest on their laurels. In short, we have a lot to execute on and an environment that really requires that we do this well.”
More than 12 months on, the treasury team at Google has certainly excelled and are worthy winners of the prestigious Treasury Today Top Treasury Team Award. They have implemented some stunning projects.
You will see in some of the other individual categories that Google has also been awarded either Winner (Effective Risk Management category) or Highly Commended (Outstanding Insourcing/Outsourcing, Harnessing the Power of Technology, Best SEPA Solution and ‘One to Watch’ categories).
From outsourcing the management of the company’s $26 billion cash position to implementing a CLS solution to settle their Foreign Government Bond transactions to an elegant SEPA solution, the team at Google have demonstrated best practice and introduced some outstandingly innovative solutions.
