Headquartered in Virginia, United States, Ferguson is the largest value-added distributor serving the residential and non-residential North American construction market. The company provides expertise and a wide range of products and services from plumbing, HVAC, appliances and lighting to PVF, water and wastewaters solutions. Ferguson reported sales of US$29.5bn in fiscal year 2024 and employs around 35,000 people across almost 1,800 locations.
Royston Da Costa was named highly commended winner in this year’s Champion of Change category for EMEA – a category which recognises individuals who demonstrate a real commitment to challenging the status quo.
A regular speaker at industry panels, conferences and roundtables, Royston is passionate about supporting positive change wherever it is needed. He is well known both as an advocate of adopting promising new technologies and as a champion of ESG, greater diversity, and inclusivity in treasury – areas which he believes go hand-in-hand.
As Royston explains, “It’s always been my ambition to facilitate change. I’ve been in treasury for 37 years, and there have certainly been some cultural aspects of the profession that are thankfully less common today. That said, we’ve still got a lot more work to do as we work to build a more equitable and fair society.”
Future-proofing the treasury
As Assistant Treasurer at Ferguson in the UK, Royston looks after the company’s intercompany loan structure and supports the treasury team in the US with activities such as dividend hedging and share buybacks. He also plays a key role in driving the adoption of treasury technology – and in recent years, he has become increasingly interested in the role technology can play in furthering inclusion and diversity across the industry.
“When I joined Ferguson in 2002, there was no technology at the time – everything was done using spreadsheets,” he recalls. “We got our first TMS in 2006. But it was the economic crisis of 2008 that really had a huge impact on me and my role.”
When the treasury adopted its first cloud-based solution in 2015, Royston says this not only helped future-proof the treasury function but also enabled the team to build on this infrastructure by joining Swift and adopting mobile app payments. In recent years, Ferguson has used technology to achieve numerous benefits, including improving group liquidity by over £0.5bn, saving £500,000 per year through better cash visibility, and saving 108 days annually through process optimisation.
Alongside his passion for implementing new technology, Royston is also a strong proponent of building a more diverse treasury profession.
“As my role has become more focused on adopting technology, a concurrent stream became very apparent to me, which was the real disparity in the industry due to a lack of diversity,” he says. “Over the years, Treasury Today has done a great job at highlighting this imbalance. While the area of gender diversity presented an obvious starting point, this has evolved to include other types of diversity as well.”
“I’m incredibly honoured to receive this Champion of Change award for EMEA. Driving change takes persistence, courage and a willingness to challenge the status quo – qualities I’ve worked hard to bring to everything I do. This recognition reflects not just the outcomes, but the intention and effort behind them. I am deeply committed to creating space for new thinking, building bridges across regions and helping others embrace change.
I’m grateful to be part of a community that is committed to making a meaningful difference and I’m proud of the role I’ve played in pushing forward progress to date.”
Harnessing technology to drive change
Today, Royston is proactive in promoting the adoption of technology; he is a regular presenter on Treasury Dragons, which vets the latest technology solutions and is also a senior lecturer for a CFTE course on the impact of generative AI on treasury.
He also actively works to promote awareness of topics such as unconscious bias, neurodiversity and menopause, as well as health topics such as prostate cancer, and is passionate about communicating the progress Ferguson has made in developing its own diversity programmes.
A past speaker at Treasury Today’s Women in Treasury & Finance London Forum, Royston recently took part in a panel discussion hosted by Citi, which explored how building diverse teams can help to future-proof the treasury and finance functions. Here, again, he believes technology has an important role to play in supporting progress.
“I think technology is a crucial ingredient when it comes to championing change,” Royston explains. “For one thing, technology has done a lot to enable remote and flexible working. While there are times when it’s more beneficial to have face-to-face interactions, technology can also give people the opportunity to make their voices heard if it’s not possible to attend events in-person, for example due to caring responsibilities.”
At the same time, he points out that technology enables a certain degree of anonymity, which can be helpful in various ways. “For one thing, it can make it easier for people to engage with courses on topics such as neurodiversity in a more relaxed setting,” he says. “It can also help to address unconscious bias in areas such as the recruitment process, which can lead to more diverse candidates coming through.”
As Royston concludes, “Treasury as a profession has had a reputation in the past for being rather stodgy and male-dominated, but we all know how exciting it can be, and I believe there are increasingly opportunities for people of all backgrounds. The next generation gives me great hope that we can make the workplace better and more equitable for everyone.”
Treasury Today Group’s Within Awards celebrate exceptional talent and dedicated individuals changing their corporations from within. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/women-in-treasury/awards/
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