Christina Easton is Treasury Today’s 2024 Woman of the Year for The Americas Overall Winner and has clearly demonstrated her technical know-how and ability to innovate. She has also been a role model with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Christina has been innovating throughout her career and has had a journey defined by resilience and overcoming adversity, as well as inspiring others. She is currently pursuing her passion for treasury and financial technology and founded Easton Consulting Group, which concentrates on collaborating with treasury organisations to articulate their North star vision, devise technology strategies, oversee transformations, and offer impartial insights into emerging industry technologies.
Previously the Senior Director of Global Treasury and Financial Services at Microsoft, Christina was responsible for managing treasury operations, analytics and treasury operations service delivery.
Aside from her job title, she could also be described as a treasury thought leader, certified blockchain strategist and innovator. During her time at Microsoft, she led a number of efforts questioning the status quo on processes and creating treasury technology and business value roadmaps. She encouraged her organisation to ideate on use of artificial intelligence and machine learning and thinking creatively.
Embedding diversity in teams
Prior to her time at Microsoft, she was Director, Global Client Payments at Avalara and built a highly functioning business team supporting the organisation’s expanding corporate tax remittance product capabilities across industry verticals.
As well as pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved with financial technology, she has also been focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. Throughout her time managing teams at various companies, Christina has focused on diversity in candidates when hiring. It is not just a diversity of background and experience, but also a diversity of thought that she found important. When working on hackathons to hash out the latest innovations, for example, she found it important to bring all teams and people into the process to ensure all perspectives on a problem – and its solution – were found.
One of the solutions she worked on was tackling a prevalent industry challenge associated with personal identity. During multiple hackathons, she involved internal and external parties, developers, internal engineering teams and ecosystem partners. The gathering of different perspectives and various disciplines and industries on the topic of know your customer, cryptography and regulations was key to a successful outcome.
“Everyone has a voice,” Christina says of her former employer Microsoft, and she has extended this to the teams that she has worked with. “I’m aware and include individuals that have self-identified as neuro-divergent, those who have shared mental health challenges, to help them be at their best as well as provide different ways they can contribute and be heard,” she explains.
Focusing on well-being
Christina has also had a keen focus on well-being. When she was working at her peak, she made a point of taking time off – and by doing so set an example to others that it is important to prioritise one’s mental and physical health. “My experience stands as a testament to the positive impact of prioritising well-being. By embracing time off without fear, I became a role model for others within the organisation, encouraging them to take necessary breaks for rejuvenation and to focus on their mental health, and that one’s career and achievements will not go unnoticed. Investing in a supportive work culture, guided by empathetic leaders who lead by example, is paramount,” she says.
Christina has had a positive impact on the careers of many people, including Luisa Interlandi, Global Business Manager in Microsoft, who says Christina has been instrumental in helping her grow and develop in her role. This has included teaching valuable skills and techniques that have improved her performance. “Christina has also guided me through challenging situations and projects, offering insightful advice and constructive feedback. She has always been supportive, encouraging and motivating, and she has always pushed me to achieve my goals and exceed my expectations. What sets Christina apart from other coaches and mentors is her genuine passion for helping others and her personalised approach to each mentee. She has taken the time to understand my strengths, weaknesses, interests and aspirations, and she has tailored her coaching to suit my needs and preferences,” Luisa says.
A strategic partner commented: “Christina differentiated herself from most of her clients by not only being open to change but looked to embrace new technology to drive transformation across the treasury industry”.
And Ankur Patel, who worked with Christina as head of product for Verified ID at Microsoft, says: “Christina’s foresight, tech-savvy problem-solving, and ability to unite diverse teams (both internal and external to Microsoft) are truly commendable. Her thought leadership is recognised at senior executive levels of the company and industry.”
Meanwhile Eric Wang, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft, says of his time working with Christina when she was responsible for managing the global treasury operation. “Together, we collaborated on a fintech innovation project that aimed to enhance the bank account operational efficiency of global companies like Microsoft. Christina’s expertise in treasury operations was invaluable to the success of the project, and I learned a great deal from her about how treasury operations function in a global company.”
