Aditi Agarwal has worked for GE – and subsequently GE HealthCare – for over 17 years, but during that time her role has changed significantly. “I’ve always been with treasury, but I’ve worked in different countries and continents, so I have knowledge of the different regions – which is an added advantage, because treasury has a lot of regional nuances to take care of,” she observes.

During her 14 years at GE Capital, Agarwal took on a number of treasury roles. These included working as Digital Leader for GE Corporate Treasury in Singapore, where she led digital initiatives to drive process automation and treasury transformation. In 2020, Agarwal moved to the US to take on the role of Treasury Data Leader, where she was responsible for defining the treasury’s tech stack strategy for GE’s three separating businesses, as well as leading the TMS and data strategy implementation for GE Corporate Treasury.

Agarwal recalls that the early stages of her career at GE were pivotal in helping her gain a clear understanding of the different functions within treasury, such as liquidity management, FX management and bank relationship management. “These were my core functions, and I spent a couple of years going much deeper into these areas,” she says. “Working on these different functions has given me a competitive advantage when it comes to supporting the bigger initiatives of the organisation.”

As a result, Agarwal had the opportunity to take on the role of transformation leader for the organisation – a role that she has now held for a number of years, and which spans transformations related to M&A activity, as well as digital transformation within the organisation.

“This can be transformation related to M&A, including the significant changes that GE has gone through in the last few years, from acquiring Alstom to spinning the business off into three business units,” she says. “I have also been driving digital transformation within the organisation, which began with addressing manual, spreadsheet-based processes and creating digital dashboards, and is now focused on adopting technologies like AI and machine learning.”

Designing a treasury from scratch

The company’s transformation journey has been more momentous than most. In 2021, General Electric announced its plan to split into three separate public companies, GE HealthCare, GE Vernova and GE Aerospace.

As GE Chairman and CEO H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. commented in a press release at the time, “By creating three industry-leading, global public companies, each can benefit from greater focus, tailored capital allocation and strategic flexibility to drive long-term growth and value for customers, investors and employees.”

GE HealthCare was subsequently created on 4th January 2023, with Agarwal taking on the position of Chief of Staff and Global Operations Leader for the company’s treasury.

Today, GE HealthCare is a US$19.7bn global healthcare solutions provider that provides medical technology, pharmaceutical diagnostics and AI-enabled solutions, services and data analytics. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the company operates in more than 160 countries around the world and spends over US$1bn annually in R&D and product investment. The company comprises four different business units: imaging, ultrasound, patient care solutions and pharmaceutical diagnostics.

Previously, treasury at GE had been very centralised. However, the spin off exercise meant that each of the three new businesses would need its own treasury function. As such, Agarwal’s key focus upon her move to GE HealthCare was on creating a standalone treasury function from scratch – a task which was accomplished very effectively.

“Within a 12-month period, we stood up a new treasury organisation, which involved setting up new systems and processes as well as hiring people,” Agarwal says. “It was definitely a Herculean task, but I think that having the right talent within the organisation and external partnership helped us to be very successful in this endeavour.”

With a timeline of just one year, this exercise involved navigating inherited complexities and high volumes of transactions – as well as comprehensively redesigning the treasury function’s structures and functionality.

In the course of this exercise, the company streamlined numerous legacy systems, optimised processes, and ensured that the necessary governance and policies were in place. Highlights of the project included consolidating 36 legacy systems down to nine, while implementing a complete technology ecosystem and completing over 300 functional and system implementation milestones.

As part of the project, the company also established a long-term vision called ‘Treasury 2028’ to future-proof the organisation and define the objectives that would need to be prioritised in the coming years.

The team’s achievements during this project have gained recognition both internally and across the industry – including in Treasury Today’s prestigious Adam Smith Awards programme. In the 2024 Adam Smith Awards, GE HealthCare was named overall winner in the Best Treasury Transformation Project category.

Culture and values

Today, GE HealthCare’s treasury team is managed by a treasurer working from the company’s headquarters in Chicago. The treasury also has a regional presence to support businesses in different regions where needed.

“It’s a mixed model in which some functions are regionally present due to the needs of the business – some countries have regulations that require us to be physically present there,” Agarwal explains. “In other cases, it’s a centralised function. So functions like liquidity management and payments executions are managed regionally, whereas bank account management and FX management are centralised in one place.”

As Chief of Staff and Global Operations Leader for treasury, Agarwal is responsible for supporting FX and intercompany middle office operations, as well as leasing and loan operations. “I also work extensively with the treasurer, other senior leaders and the entire team to make sure we are defining the right priorities and KPIs for our organisation,” she says.

“This is a new organisation, and we want to make sure we’re driving the right culture and have the right connectivity with the team, so I try to make sure we have a very well-connected team. We don’t create siloes – we work collaboratively, value the culture and the values that we set for ourselves and hold ourselves accountable to those.”

Agarwal explains that these values include doing the right thing, “even if nobody’s looking”, as well as being transparent with the team on topics such as geopolitical issues and the economic environment.

“When we were standing up the treasury for GE HealthCare, we hired folks with experience from the GE treasury team, but we very much wanted to define our own culture,” she adds. “We try to run our organisation with robust controls, but if something goes wrong within that framework, we make sure we have each other’s back – we don’t let our team struggle, and we want to make sure that nobody ever feels alone.”

Eyes on the future

Treasury never stands still – and Agarwal says her current focus is on simplifying and standardising processes, and harnessing technology to drive further benefits.

“We are trying to make sure that any process we run within our organisation is sustainable, both from a people and systems perspective,” she explains. “Our focus is always to try and leverage more out-of-the-box functionality and minimise customisation.”

As well as ensuring that the team’s systems are sustainable, she says there is also a focus on making sure that processes are sustainable from a people point of view, with the right resources in place. “Treasury is a niche function, and you need to understand treasury in order to be successful,” she says. “So it’s important to make sure you have a significant bench that will help you manage your treasury operations effectively.”

Where newer technology is concerned, Agarwal notes that AI and machine learning provide significant opportunities within treasury. “This could be as simple as taking meeting notes and summarising them, or it could mean creating a tool that can handle the frequently asked questions that come into treasury, so that people can self-service their queries,” she explains. “You can also use AI and ML to create a database where you can research your documents and reports, and to translate and summarise documents from multiple languages. So I believe these technologies do offer significant potential.”

She notes that GE HealthCare treasury is currently exploring the use cases that can be leveraged within treasury, adding that one of the most well-known use cases is cash forecasting. “Everyone talks about how AI can help with cash forecasting, and we’re looking into this as well. But it’s important to understand that the underlying data needs to be very accurate in order to use this technology successfully, so that’s the first thing to work on. The second thing is to try to see how this technology can actually help us forecast more effectively.”

At the same time, Agarwal remains attuned to the many risks faced by companies in today’s operating environment. She cites geopolitical instability as one topic that requires particular attention, particularly given the impact that the current environment can have on FX and liquidity.

And like many other treasury professionals, Agarwal views cyber risk as a significant concern. “We’re focused on leveraging technology to our advantage, but there are a lot of bad players in the market that are leveraging technology for fraud,” she notes. “That keeps me awake at night, because we have to figure out how to take a proactive approach and protect ourselves from these threats. We do so by running our organisation with very high standards of governance, with multiple internal controls in place.”

Building connections

Sharing her thoughts about the treasury profession more generally, Agarwal observes that treasury is a very specialised function that is strategically placed within the organisation. As such, it can play a key role in supporting and driving shareholder value, as well as acting as a strategic partner for the business.

“One thing I particularly enjoy is being part of an organisation which is very well-connected with other functions within the company, and that is able to add value to the bigger picture,” Agarwal notes. “There is huge potential for treasury to be that strategic partner for business growth or M&A deals, for example.”

For modern treasury professionals, Agarwal says it is essential to have not only functional knowledge, but also a technical bent of mind. “Technology is changing extensively, and there is a need for all of us to embrace technology and use it to our benefit, rather than being scared of it. We should all be ready to change and automate wherever possible.”

Given the connected nature of treasury, she is also a firm believer in the value of effective communication skills. “A lot of the time people don’t pay enough attention to soft skills, but it’s so important to create that connectivity between treasury and its cross-functional partners, like tax, legal, financial controllers and IT,” she reflects. “So having the right interpersonal skills is extremely important.”

Agarwal notes that in many organisations, treasury is treated as a siloed function – but in order to add strategic value to the organisation, it is important to break that silo. Firstly, this means having a clear understanding of all the different verticals that sit within treasury, from FX management to capital structures.

“Working knowledge of all these intertwined verticals is critical for your success,” she explains. “Once you understand the nuances of treasury, then try to understand how treasury impacts and supports the business. Be the strategic partner to the business rather than being a siloed function.”

Of course, there is also life beyond treasury – and outside the office, Agarwal says she enjoys spending time with her husband and her seven-year-old daughter. “We’re big on travel, so we travel across the country and around the globe, and we try to explore the history of the different places that we visit,” she concludes.