Adesola Orimalade talks about why treasury lacks diversity and what she's doing to change that, especially in ethnic minority communities. She shares her own experience navigating organizational change and making the case for treasury as a real career path.
There was quite a lot of things to do. There's a lot of setup because there were people were leaving and they had to bring in new people. So there was a period of, of change and a period of reorganization. And also it wasn't a team that was full of a lot of people that had years and years of treasury experience. So I wasn't working to a team that was full of a lot of experienced people. So there was quite a lot of change going on at the time when there was a bigger change going on within the organization, as you within imagine. But then again, for me, change itself has a lot of positives because you get not just to understand a lot, but you also understand a lot about yourself during that period. I'm a motivational speaker. I go to schools and I talk about Treasury, I talk about what I do. I am really motivated to do that because I think that the only way people would know about treasury as a career is if we talk about it. On the other hand, I write books, for example, again, like I said earlier, because there are stories there and kids from a very early age, we don't encourage enough of dreaming and books allow people to go to places they would never have gone in real life. But the other thing again, which is very important, is that I think when you talk about people in finance, there's a view that we are all very highly strong. We're all about money, we're all about numbers, we're very good with spreadsheets and calculators. But there's the other side to us. And I want people that are not generally all into numbers and all that to also feel that they can, with the other soft skill, also be in finance, also work in Treasury. Making a career out of it is by showing that there is diversity, encouraging diversity in our profession, encouraging diversity in thought and in action, that really drives me. I'm looking at treasury, for example. How many people look and sound like me at senior level within Treasury? I don't see a lot. So when one of the drivers for me, in talking to Kemi and Kunle and Olu, in setting up the, the boot camp, the workshop we did for three weeks, treasury boot camp, was to see also how we could encourage diversity within Treasury. We would like to encourage people who would never be exposed to someone who's worked in treasury because. So if I take a step back, one of the things I found in my journey to treasury is I've not come across anyone that said to me when I was growing up I wanted to work in treasury everybody came into this profession purely by accident. At least the people I've met the closest is someone that says, oh, my dad used to be a treasurer, or my mom used to work in Treasury. Most people say they got in treasury purely by accident. And I think we can change that story. We can encourage people who, especially in ethnic minority communities, as I would describe them, where people may not meet anyone who has worked in Treasury. It should take that story to them to say, dear, treasury is a profession you can grow. It's an international profession. There are different sides to it. And you don't, you know, there are opportunities within treasury for you.
