Adam Smith Awards
This year, during our winners announcement on 6th May we revealed a shortlist of contenders for the Top Treasury Team category. The Overall Winner was announced at our prestigious black-tie dinner on 23rd June.
Many congratulations to all our 2025 Adam Smith Awards winners.
The Viatris Global Treasury team has powered transformation growth ever since the pharmaceutical company was formed in 2020 following the merger of Mylan N.V. and Upjohn, Pfizer Inc.’s off-patent branded and generic established medicines business. Treasury at Viatris has played a key role integrating and improving the Company’s efficiency, supporting the divestment of non‑core assets and reinvesting to drive future growth.
Before 2024, Celanese had multiple banking partners by region and currency, managing over 750 global bank accounts, net sales in more than 25 currencies and operations in over 100 countries. The company had two separate liquidity structures due to acquisitions, creating opportunities for optimal cash concentration.
Siemens Treasury’s Cash Management team supports their business lines by adopting real-time cash management solutions to enable the company to be closer to the market and serve their customers better. In doing that, Siemens is able to manage liquidity and payment flows seamlessly between regions in a very efficient way. Siemens wanted to execute these payments without the constraints of cut-off times and embarked upon a project to address this challenge.
Etsy’s global reach presents unique challenges, especially for its international treasury team. Etsy’s marketplace model involves a complex flow of funds in over 22 currencies. Buyers pay in their local currency while sellers might want to receive funds in another currency.
A digital transformation is a journey not a destination and this saying is certainly true in the case of the BP global cash and banking hub programme. Projects that span multiple teams, business units, geographies and organisations are inherently complex with Gartner’s research revealing 75% of ERP implementation projects get derailed along the way.
Since 2019 the economics of the industry have changed. New competitors, including traditional energy companies, have entered the sector by diversifying into clean renewable energy production. Additionally, decreasing input prices due to supply line industrialisation and lower capital costs have led governments to reduce or eliminate subsidies, replacing them with auction-based contracts that have reduced returns for developers.
On 28th March 2024, Home Depot announced its acquisition of SRS Distribution for US$18.25bn. This strategic acquisition’s aim was to enable the company to better serve the complex project purchase occasion, while also establishing the company as a leading specialty trade distributor across multiple verticals. However, the sheer scale of the acquisition necessitated a financing strategy that was both cost-effective and flexible.
The healthcare industry has faced significant disruption due to cyber-attacks and after decades of consolidating vendors and processes in the pursuit of efficiency, some of these industry cyber events revealed a new risk associated with counterparty concentration.
FedEx treasury operated a traditional notional pool structure between the APAC region and Luxembourg to optimise global cash positions. This structure delivered standard pooling benefits such as consolidated cash visibility, reduced idle balances and interest optimisation. However, the company relied on traditional banking channels that were not instantaneous and operated exclusively within banking hours.
Savvy Games’ fast-paced growth is linked to strategic mergers and partnerships that now comprise a global portfolio of acquisitions. Successfully integrating global companies involves navigating different regulatory environments and aligning business strategies across diverse markets. A robust cash management structure that is able to support rapid expansion is also vital.
The objective of the project was to look to optimise and streamline banking relationships across the Africa Zone to achieve cost efficiency in cash management. The goal was to collaborate with a group of banks that could support the long-term growth of the business while helping to reduce complexity, bureaucracy and manual work.
When Siemens’ primary bank in Mexico implemented structural changes which affected transactions and capacities, the company had to completely transition its MXN operations to a new banking partner while maintaining business continuity. The treasury team used this opportunity to build a more efficient infrastructure while solving a critical business problem: the manual processing of payments received in Mexico.
3M embarked on a global plan to enhance its treasury management, addressing the cash needs and liabilities embedded in its operations. The company sought to optimise investment strategies, manage short-term liquidity and enhance global treasury processes. Amid changing interest rate projections and market volatility, 3M needed a flexible investment approach to manage assets and liabilities and automate its treasury operations.
The art market is global, so it follows that Masterworks’ investors are as well. But complicated currency conversions and a disjointed app experience prevented many investors who were paying in foreign currencies from enjoying the same frictionless, in-app checkout experience as those in the United States.
Angela Hobart started her career working in the technology sector at Dell. But after a few years, she realised that she wanted her career to focus on addressing one of the many major challenges facing the world in the 21st century.
Barış Gökalp has been Global Head of Treasury at Şişecam since 2015. He leads a treasury team of 20, managing and overseeing the treasury operations of 44 plants in 14 countries (across the US, Europe and Asia). He is also responsible for financial technologies, customer risk management and global insurance management, pioneering digital treasury management, spearheading initiatives to optimise processes, reduce costs and enhance efficiency.
Reddit’s IPO was the result of a multi-year process aimed at achieving several objectives: allowing its users to become shareholders, providing liquidity for employees and ensuring broad investor participation.
WPP, a global advertising giant, has developed its own proprietary AI system, ‘WPP Open,’ designed to integrate, optimise and automate marketing through the creation of ‘Brand Brains’ using AI.
Building an independent treasury function in the wake of a demerger is a challenging process. In 2023 Dowlais demerged from Melrose Industries and independently listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) forming a new entity that quickly attracted scrutiny from shareholders and analysts focused on leverage, interest costs and free cashflow generation.
The gaming industry presents unique challenges for the treasury team at Flutter, stemming from: regulatory landscape and licensing requirements, high levels of M&A activity and business integration challenges.
After multiple acquisitions, BMS had been diligently working on integrating and centralising all treasury activity into the BMS banking structure. The company’s banking structure was sub-optimal, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs. The company was not centralising its cash effectively, resulting in reduced interest income and increased manual work. This fragmented approach led to excess bank accounts and higher bank fees.
Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) faced several critical challenges in liquidity management and treasury control. Acquired by Epiris, a UK-based private equity investment firm, in 2022, ISS needed to address these issues to help optimise its financial operations.
IWG’s expansive reach and scale, encompassing over 4,000 individual workspaces and legal entities, led to a complex treasury structure. One European region, consisting of only four countries, had 400 legal entities and 600 bank accounts. Additionally, the company’s sophisticated payables and receivables model required meticulous reporting, which took time away from other treasury tasks.
The production entities of the two Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) divisions – Human Pharma and Animal Health – do not sell drugs directly to customers, but to the group’s local distribution entities who then trade with the end customers. This means intercompany (IC) payments are extremely important for BI as they represent almost the entire business volume. IC invoices are in local currency to centralise FX risk in Germany.
GetYourGuide was founded 16-years ago, and today the travel experience platform that gathers the best activities across the globe in one place has grown to offer over 150,000+ activities from more than 33,000+ experienced partners in 150+ countries. In its next growth iteration the group sought to address the complex task of managing payments in multiple currencies for people and entities offering their services on its platform.
Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) is modernising its payment systems to align with global standards and support Saudi Arabia’s digital economy vision. Historically reliant on legacy SWIFT formats – such as MT103, MT101, and MT100 – SEC faced challenges including payment failures, lack of transparency, limited control, inefficient processing, reconciliation issues and security risks.
For decades, Terex has worked with and inherited many banking partners, leading to a disjointed treasury structure consisting of a patchwork quilt of solutions. Terex, which used prior-day reporting, faced limited visibility and significant challenges in global cash forecasting. Due to the fragmented account structure, cash resided in pockets around the world, with excess cash held by subsidiaries instead of being optimised at the group level.
In preparation for the spin-off, GE spent the last several years transforming the GE Vernova (GEV) businesses. Through the robust cash management of this business, the company successfully spun off as GE Vernova LLC (now GE Vernova INC) as an Investment Grade (IG) Rated corporate (BBB-) on 2nd April 2024.
In 2020, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was made available under Emergency Use Authorisation, becoming one of the leading vaccines used globally, before receiving commercial approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2022. The company commenced US sales and embarked on a global expansion in 2021, with product sales reaching US$18.4bn in 2022.
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) embarked on a bold treasury transformation to modernise its operations, enhance efficiency and align with best in class practices. At the beginning of this transformation, BCG operated a decentralised treasury model with fragmented banking relationships and inadequate technology.
When Mercedes-Benz and Daimler Truck underwent corporate demerger, unprecedented challenges emerged in establishing an autonomous treasury function. Rather than pursuing incremental improvements, cost efficiency requirements, legal mandates and operational necessities drove the decision for a complete treasury transformation.
Rebuilding a fit for purpose organisation from a conglomerate with more than US$70bn in revenue was the treasury team’s immediate task. As the last business to launch as a standalone company, GE Aerospace also had to support the separations of GE Healthcare and GE Vernova before focusing on its own transformation.
As one of the largest supermarket retailers in the UK, ASDA faces a significant GHG emission reduction challenge. Having identified approximately 98% of ASDA’s carbon emissions are Scope 3 (outside its direct control) and primarily within its supply chain, ASDA realised it would need to do something different to engage the supplier base to align with its own ESG objectives.
Widely known for its single price point concept, Dollar Tree announced in 2021 plans to add new price points and broaden its product range to attract more customers. In line with the new strategy, it has been optimising its supply chain operations, expanding its footprint and remodelling its stores.
When Informa announced its £1.2bn acquisition of Ascential in 2024, behind the scenes the group’s treasury had to ready a funding package at pace. The Informa treasury team has a good line of sight to most mergers and acquisitions (M&As) through its collaborative working relationship with the group’s Corporate Development team but, in this instance, the transaction had arisen quickly transforming from a potential target to live target in short order.
When Uber’s credit rating jumped from high-yield to investment grade the company sought to refinance its debt at preferential rates. Treasury sprang into action, backed by a new financial policy, to refinance nearly US$6bn in debt at a lower rate and restructure the debt capital structure.
In March 2024, A2A bought Enel’s electricity distribution assets in Lombardy in the largest M&A deal in Italy’s electricity sector. As well as enabling the financing of the transaction, the Finance team at A2A also needed to support the Group’s credit rating.
In 2023, the independent power producer Enerjisa Üretim needed to secure a US$1bn funding package for the construction of nine greenfield onshore wind power plants across three sites in Turkey, totalling 750 MW of capacity. These projects formed part of Turkey’s YEKA-2 wind power plant tender programme, which is designed to accelerate the nation’s renewable energy transition.
São Martinho S.A. embarked upon its transformative biomethane initiative, a project that not only revolutionises sustainable energy production in agribusiness but also exemplifies a best in class funding solution. Recognising the critical need to lower greenhouse gas emissions and foster renewable energy, the company partnered with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to secure an innovative financing package that has been instrumental in propelling this endeavour forward.
During the banking crises involving Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse, it became clear that Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) had opportunities to enhance its reporting and risk mitigation strategies. Market volatility raised concerns about bank counterparty exposure, necessitating data aggregation across multiple systems. Concurrently, interest forecasts dramatically changed daily along with Fed expectations, requiring frequent updates to CFP&A and management.
Digitisation has transformed bank account management for organisations across the globe but the task of managing account signers often remains an inefficient, manual and arduous process. Shell wanted to implement a digital signer maintenance solution to reduce manual processes and drive efficiencies. Treasury was also looking to counter fraud risk, increase transparency and treasury also wanted a solution that would support access to real-time data.
For a company like Roche, with an industry-leading treasury set-up, innovation, automation and digitisation are top priorities – and FX is an important component of the company’s financial results. As such, Roche aimed to improve its FX processes, in a more standardised, transparent and efficient manner. Roche’s treasury has a fully centralised set up and is centrally hedging the FX exposure that the affiliates have around the globe.
Historically, Avalara primarily used manual processes, such as complex Excel models, to manage immense funding, payment and reconciliation tasks within extremely compressed monthly filing deadlines. This manual approach posed many operational risks, scalability limitations and inefficiencies.
ABB E-mobility faced an urgent and complex challenge after its strategic carve-out from ABB, having to complete build an independent, globally operational treasury function. The objectives were clear and critical; look to ensure business continuity, gain real-time cash visibility, automate treasury operations and establish a scalable foundation for future growth.
Microsoft has experienced significant growth in revenue, billing and customers during the past decade. The level of complexity to support and provide services to its expanding base of customers has also increased and this has led to an extremely complex treasury credit and collections eco‑system with multiple tools and systems, some being third-party propriety systems along with fractured processes with heavy reliance on manual activities.
Al-Futtaim, based in Dubai, wanted to centralise its treasury function, particularly seeking to ensure Head Office had complete control over the balance sheet of each subsidiary.
In the wake of Careem’s transformation into a joint venture between Uber and Etisalat in 2023, the organisation found itself navigating an exceptionally complex treasury landscape. With 89 bank accounts across 17 markets, multiple banking relationships and heavily reliant on manual reconciliation processes, Careem’s treasury was faced with limited visibility over liquidity, fragmented manual reporting, and a highly inefficient working capital model (including prepayments of majority of vendors and suppliers and collections through Payment Service Providers (PSPs) on D+3).
Lulu has seen accelerated growth over several years and now operates more than 255 stores across the Middle East. The Group serve 685,000 shoppers daily from 130 nationalities (in store and online). Lulu had the most successful IPO in the UAE for 2024; this motivated the company to bring a global standard for the treasury functions of Lulu.
Coca-Cola HBC has been present in Nigeria through the birth of the company, founding the Nigerian Bottling Company in 1951. Given its experience in the market and risk management being embedded in its DNA, the company strived to implement a solution that would address several challenges when operating in Nigeria.
The Republic of Rwanda needed new financing options to transition from a low-income to a middle-income economy by 2035. Despite achieving 7.6% economic growth in early 2023, Rwanda’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning needed diversified funding sources so it could finance its Vision 2050 and National Strategy for transformation goals for economic development.
Sika Egypt for Construction (Sika) wanted to enhance its treasury management operations and move away from manual processes by adopting digital solutions to automate and streamline its Egypt treasury function. Key requirements in addressing local operational needs, were the ability to improve visibility and control, eliminate manual payments and collections, remove physical cash handling and streamline expense management.
Arca Continental faced increasing challenges in managing hedge accounting after acquiring Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages in the US. The company was struggling to manage foreign exchange and interest rate risks across multiple markets, particularly linked to its expansion of its operations into the southwestern United States.
Microsoft treasury has demonstrated exemplary leadership providing innovative and effective payment solutions to address the complex financial landscape and regulatory challenges in Argentina to provide support for its customers and partners impacted by the Capital Control restrictions.
PepsiCo is one of the strongest food and beverage manufacturers in Brazil, operating over eight production plants and 68 warehouses throughout the country. The company employs over 12,000 people, works closely with local entrepreneurs and invests in lasting, win-win partnerships with suppliers, farmers, consumers and communities.
BT’s treasury team manages a substantial cash and liquidity portfolio. Initially, when BT started using money market funds (MMFs), trades were placed by phone and confirmed manually. As BT’s investment requirements and cash strategy expanded, there was a need to streamline processes, and the treasury team adopted an independent cash management portal for quicker trade placement and reduced manual processing.
In the years following the Covid-19 pandemic, the treasury team at Southwire was confronted with a series of headwinds that required strategic planning and careful execution to successfully navigate.
In the early 2020s, Coca-Cola’s treasury team realised that growth, digitisation and volatile markets meant the company needed to overhaul its FX programme. The team began working on a new solution in 2023 that has significantly improved productivity and communication with the C-suite. It has also freed the FX team to evaluate and manage currencies in a way that adds value to the business.
JLR is a truly international business with substantial exposures to FX, raw materials and interest rates where volatility can impact the company’s financial performance. JLR’s treasury team runs sophisticated strategies and tools to effectively and efficiently manage financial risks related to FX, raw materials, interest rates and liquidity among others.
Until 2022, Brazilian regulations required companies to submit supporting documents for every foreign exchange (FX) transaction, such as invoices, import/export declarations and contracts. This manual process was time-consuming, creating operational burden for both banks and companies. Transaction processing was inefficient, delaying payments and requiring significant effort from both sides.
Fifteen years ago, in a remarkable story of personal resilience and growth, Mihaela (Misha) Mihaylova landed in Atlanta, Georgia from her native Bulgaria alone, without a job or anywhere to live. After winning the green card lottery, the programme where eligible individuals are selected to apply for a green card and permanent US residency, she took the plunge and chose to start a new life in America.
Netta Christensen brings over two decades of experience in cash and liquidity management, having held senior roles both in global corporates and international banking. She joined Maersk in 2019 as Head of Cash Management Strategy before stepping into her current global leadership role in 2024.
