In one of our most anticipated annual events, Asia’s top treasury talent gathered at Singapore’s iconic Four Seasons Hotel for our Adam Smith Awards Asia celebration on November 16th. Now in its tenth year, the quality and number of nominations from Asia’s leading, fast growing and innovative corporations continues to grow with judges scrutinising nearly 450 nominations from 15 countries to select winners across 19 categories of treasury endeavour.
After months of waiting, the winning and highly commended treasury teams and their banking partners or service providers came onto the stage to collect their prize from Treasury Today Group’s publishers Sophie Jackson and Meg Coates. Afterwards they enjoyed a delicious celebratory dinner in the hotel’s luxurious dining rooms where the canopies of trees rising from the boulevard below are visible through beautiful arched windows.
Winners included multinational and regional champions, government entities and Asia’s fastest growing companies. Treasury teams and their partners came from across the region and an array of industries to join in an event that recognises success, regardless of budget, geography or industry.
The Adam Smith Awards Asia are an opportunity for networking and a chance for corporate treasurers to receive their awards in person in the company of their peers, colleagues and partners. It’s a rare public recognition of treasury, a profession that often hides from the limelight. But amid the friendly competition and rivalry the awards also underscore the supportive and collaborative nature of treasury as a profession, visible in the applause from around the room for all the winning teams.
The event began with a drink’s reception and Sophie extending a warm welcome to everyone. “Today is our ten-year anniversary, and many of you have been part of our journey since the beginning,” she said. “I want to say a big thank you and congratulations. This year we received over 430 nominations from across the region so those of you who have won an award have achieved something truly phenomenal.”
Next guests made their way to the dining rooms to receive their awards. Some of their achievements are included below, but these represent just a small selection of this year’s success stories. Further details of each winning solution or personal award can be found in Treasury Today Group’s case studies, which will be published on our website in the new year.
Always a highlight of the ceremony, this year’s Top Treasury Team Award 2023 was scooped by Nestlé Treasury Center Asia Pacific in recognition of the division’s enduring focus on treasury excellence across multiple divisions spanning business partnering and advisory, risk management, digitalisation, process automation and operational efficiency. Headed by Felicia Foong, the team manages treasury activities across 20 markets and around 100 entities in Asia Pacific. Felicia leads a team (one of the largest in the region) of 15 treasury professionals based in Singapore tasked with managing cash and liquidity management, forex strategy and risk management, capital structure and corporate finance and funding, supported by a 13-person shared services treasury team based in the Philippines.
The role of technology and the ability of corporate treasury to integrate and, perhaps most importantly, keep up with all it has to offer, is recognised in two of our categories. This year, German multinational Merck won our Best Emerging Technology Solution where Head of Treasury, Sharline Wang, based in the company’s Shanghai office led the introduction of a fully automated reconciliation workflow process driven by Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools.
The technology has helped Merck increase automation and accuracy in reconciliation, consolidate data across different sources for the purpose of standardisation, and reduce manual processes across various touchpoints and hitherto repetitive tasks.
The other winner in our technology category, (Harnessing the Power of Technology) went to Sony Group Corporation, represented by Takehiro Yagi, Senior Project Manager, Sony Global Treasury Services. His comments on scooping the team’s award were a nod to how awards and recognition can be a powerful driver of treasury ambition. “It really is a remarkable achievement because the Adam Smith Awards Asia is such a prestigious award that everyone is aiming for! It has motivated everyone involved in Sony’s global treasury transformation,” he said.
Denso International India, the national manufacturer of automotive components won Best Sustainable Treasury Solution. Reflective of how the auto sector is working to integrate sustainability, our judges recognised how treasury teams at three of the group’s Indian subsidiaries combined innovation and sustainability to raise funds through a Sustainability Linked Loan (SLL) to finance projects with positive environmental impact.
Rani Misra, APAC Treasurer & Global Head of Insurance at Cargill won Corporate Treasurer of the Year while the Highly Commended award in this category went to Nitin Sethi, Head Treasury Emerging Markets at Bridgestone India Private Ltd.
Rani has been with Cargill for 23 years since she started as an analyst in the commodity giant’s global headquarters in Minneapolis, US. From here she went on to treasury roles in the UK and Singapore, where she currently leads Cargill’s Asia Pacific treasury. Her responsibilities have spanned liquidity and cash management, debt capital markets, foreign exchange, risk advisory and M&A; bank relationships and credit access as well as corporate FP&A. She has also led the company’s global insurance strategy and programmes for the last three years.
Asia Pacific is arguably the world’s most diverse region in terms of risks, opportunities and regulations in Cargill’s businesses and treasury operations. In testimony to that variety, and the strategic nature of treasury, Rani’s day-to-day ranges from exploring funding solutions for farmers in India to addressing impacts of regulatory changes in China, while managing knotting regulations across the patchwork of countries, and frequent spikes in volatility in financial and commodity markets.
Our awards also recognise those in the earlier stages of their career. In recognition of his progression and achievements so far, our A Rising Star award went to Adnan Bora Baykal, APAC Lead in Corporate Finance and Treasury at Turkish household appliance manufacturer Arcelik Hitachi. Based in Thailand, Adnan has supported the company to extend its Asia Pacific footprint with a 60:40 joint venture with Hitachi Global Life Solutions.
Rising from a position in internal audit to joining the corporate finance team, Adnan has taken on responsibilities in treasury and cash management; supported the establishment of a new regional treasury set up in Thailand and the transition to a new banking partner. His role has included winding down legacy systems that included more than 200 bank accounts, paper-intensive transactions including cheques and cash, and decommissioning multiple legacy ERP systems will all the accompanying reconciliation headache. He did all this in under six months, in line with rolling out the group’s new cash management structure. His award recognises his role as an integral part of the newly formed treasury team and his career versatility and progression.
“For my company, this recognition holds immense meaning. We are grateful for the opportunity to be showcased among the best in Asia. This award not only elevates our company’s human capital but also strengthens the confidence that our partners place in us. Eager to leverage this momentum, we are committed to exploring new horizons, innovating relentlessly, and continuously striving for perfection,” he said.
This year’s Best Funding Solution went to Lenovo, represented by Head of Treasury Operations Koh Ser Mein who said the award was a consequence of the partnership the company has with its banking partners. “This accolade is a testament to our team’s pursuit of innovative, efficient and risk mitigated treasury solutions with our banking partners.”
Elsewhere, our Best Transaction Management Solution went to Coupang Corporation, represented by Eddie Hong. Eddy Putra, Head of Treasury at Indonesian based PT Global Tiket Network, won Best in Class Treasury Solution in the ASEAN category.
As the celebrations ended, the winners and their partners reflected on their achievements and successes in an uplifting end to an evening that carried on late into the night. As part of our Adam Smith Awards Asia 2023 programme, we will produce case studies on all our award winners and these will be published on our website, in our Treasury Insights newsletter and on our social media channels early in the new year. We look forward to sharing the best practices and success of our winners throughout the Adam Smith Awards Asia season.
Nominations for Adam Smith Awards Asia 2024 open in June.
