Embracing Growth and Change with Rick Barrett

Foreign.

Welcome to this week's Treasury Career Corner podcast where I interview treasury professionals about their treasury careers. Each and every week I talk to them about how they've built their careers, where they are now, where they see both themselves and the treasury profession going to next. Let's get on with the show.

In.

This week's show delights to be joined by Rick Barrett, the director of treasury for Rotary International and the Rotary Foundation. Rotary is a global network of 1.4 million, as it says, neighbors, friends, leaders and problem solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change across the globe. Now, these Rotary clubs cover the world and I'm going to get Rick to dive into that later on the show. But actually it was a, you know, not the conventional start, if you like, into finance and Treasury. I'll get Rick to describe that and I'll shut up and let him do the show. Rick, over to you. Talk us through your career, how you originally discovered the world of finance, treasury, and as I say, slightly different for yourself. Carry on.

Good afternoon, Mike. It's good to talk with you. Probably not the most conventional start to my treasury career. My undergrad is actually more in arts administration, theater management, and as part of my journey, if you will, I took an internship with a local symphony orchestra and just had an opportunity to work closely with their controller. And it just kind of sparked an interest in accounting and finance. When I considered more growth there, it really seemed that I needed to take a more traditional accounting or finance job and so moved into the tax department of a large state staffing agency. Their full time headquarters worked there for about a year and the tax department happened to sit next to the Treasury Department and I had a chance to hear more about what they do, talk with them, really had a chance to learn from their treasury manager about how he got to where he was and just sounded so interesting and made a choice that if I'm really going to pursue this, I need to go back, get a graduate degree in finance, which I did, and then pursue a Treasury career from there.

You know, that's quite a decision to make. That must have. Was there a lot of agonizing or was it just, you know, actually this seems the natural thing. It was, yeah.

Yeah, it was a natural progression. And I always kind of knew I was going to go back to grad school. I just wasn't sure what I was going to study. And I knew that if I'm going to spend the time to invest in a graduate education, I need to be sure what I wanted out of that. And one of the best pieces of advice that I got from the head of tax that I worked for, if you're going to go to grad school, go full time. Don't try to balance working and going part time. If you can go full time, go full time. I was in a position where I could do that. I was fortunate that I had parents that welcomed me back as a roommate for a couple of years while I pursued my education. I which I did in full force. I took a part time program in master's level finance and did it in 18 months. And it was at that point in time one of the hardest things I had done. It was more than, more than a job. I mean I worked on, I worked on it between classes and homework and papers and things, six days a week. I took the advice and I took it seriously and I got it done. And then I was able to move on into my career. Right after the dot com bust, which was wonderful timing to be looking for a job and was lucky at the time to find the one that I did with a technology company that had happened to survive the bust. They had not gone public which probably saved them. And it wasn't so much my treasury or insurance experience that got me into the position, it was that I had done some tax work prior to which ended up being the bulk of the job even though it was intended to be a mix of tax, treasury and insurance. So I was there for not quite a year and a half and then moved out of there into a, a more traditional treasury role with a healthcare organization doing typical cash management, working a bit with their investment program and then about 25% insurance which really more like was 100% treasury and 25% insurance, which is what tends to happen with those types of shared positions. But definitely learned a lot just from the basics of, you know, daily cash management, working on a little bit with their investment program. As I mentioned, I had a chance to participate in a few manager selections. Got a little bit of the investment accounting experience that I hadn't had previously. Worked more closely on a broader insurance program which was kind of fun.

I was going to say what was it like working for a health provider or you know, health company, health system company that you know, versus look at it now with rotary and things. What was that like? You know, Rick, you and I, we spoke just briefly before the show about treasury in different industries, you know, whether you're doing widgets or doing financial services or doing, you know, health, you know, systems and things. What was that like for you, I.

Think at the time, and again this goes back almost 20 years when I first started the healthcare organization. I mean it was so much more, was just very desktop based. It was so much more in the office and dialing in, if you remember that, to get your bank statements and that produced almost from a DOS based system. You think about technology today, I mean it was a more traditional environment, I would say suits four days a week, which was definitely a difference from my previous employer, which you could wear jeans every day. We certainly didn't have snacks and beverages in unlimited supply in the office though over time in the technology company those went away as they did in many places. It was a much more structured environment, I would say hierarchy was probably a little more rigid and just larger, just much, much larger. I mean in the prior company it's a small office, it was one floor mostly of a 21 story building downtown in Chicago versus you know, several thousand people that were part of this healthcare organization. You know, outside of the corporate level, finance and accounting staff and then some of the field, field based controllers and some of their direct reports, you know, you just didn't get to know many other people.

And so way back when in 2005, so 17 years ago, you then transitioned to, to join. How would you describe. Well again, maybe for the listeners, you know, people who maybe know Rotary groups or no Rotary foundation or you know, in some format, what was it like then and how has it evolved as an organization? Then we'll deep dive into your career with it if we could. So you made the move. Who were you joining? What was it like?

I mean it was, it was certainly very different from where I had come from. There was much more diversity in not just the organization in terms of our membership, but also in terms of the people that I worked with. I think when I joined at the time I was told that if every person working in our office in Evanston were to speak their first language, there would be 40 languages spoken. Wow. I never worked in an environment like that, which I actually thought was really exciting. Just getting to meet people from all over the world and just to see how smart they all were, how dedicated they all were, was really, really amazing. Getting the opportunity to work in an international environment which my previous employers had not been primarily, mostly domestic. The healthcare organization had an offshore based captive insurance company that was about as international as it got. Rotary was and still is a very international organization. Today we have probably about 70% of our membership is outside the US so we have to be very aware of International.

And what is, you know, what is Rotary? Again, some people know it, some people won't. So what's the paragraph that you sometimes may describe again? I've got it right in front of me. But I'd like it in your words more than anything for our listeners really.

So we're the international network of Rotary Clubs. You know, you may see in your local community the Rotary gear wheel or assigned for Rotary International meets. Here. It's people in your communities that are providing service, that are doing good works. In the case of my club, we're helping to pack food at one of local food banks or we're helping provide local scholarships to area high school students. It could be support of those types of very local programs. It could be support of very global and international programs. Our most well known is global eradication of the polio virus, which most of us don't even think about because we were vaccinated as children when Rotary started this campaign back in late 70s, early 80s and then made a promise to the world in the mid-80s to eradicate polio permanently. I mean there were still millions and millions of children that got polio every year. And now the virus is endemic only in two countries and Pakistan and Afghanistan. And if you think about how difficult it is to get to some of the more rural areas, given some of the lack of infrastructure, given some of the warlike conditions that are currently extant, the fact that we have gotten polio down to just these two locations and there hasn't been a single case in Pakistan for over a year is really remarkable and I think just shows the resiliency, just how dedicated, you know, our membership is to eradicating this terrible disease. It'll only be the second disease in the history of humankind that has been fully eradicated.

Amazing.

The first one being smallpox and, and.

With that your a charity and that's all you guys focus on. And that's the key ethos behind it or are the other things you guys do?

Peace building is certainly something we're also very well known for. We have a number of graduate level programs in peace and conflict resolution at several universities around the world that we partner with. We have any number of grant programs that address community needs. It can be building water wells, it can be providing supplies or equipment for classrooms. Disaster relief is certainly very big on our minds today. We've, we're providing some significant support for the humanitarian crisis taking place as a result of the war in Ukraine. So wherever there is a challenge, Rotarians are on the ground and trying to help improve people's lives in the communities that we serve.

And for you, as a treasurer, you're in that position? Well, actually just give us a quick walk through because you started there in cash management through to then your treasurer position. What was the, you know, what were the steps like? And obviously that's allied, you know, you and I spoke before the show in our pre podcast about how the organization has evolved, how you've grown as a Treasury professional yourself. Talk us through that, if you would.

Well, it's been largely because when I hired six weeks later, my predecessor left the organization. So it was an opportunity to move up very quickly that I hadn't necessarily expected when I joined. And then over time just continuing to, to learn more about the organization, continuing to find where are those responsibilities that don't necessarily have a home that I can give some oversight to. I'll take merchant processing. It just. It was one of those things that no one was responsible for, but everyone kind of wanted to make sure we had, we had, we had a limited merchant processing. We did US Dollars only for the most part as an international organization wanting to expand that to an international constituency. You know, we have to have an experience that's in their currency and an experience that is in their language as well. That's probably one of the opportunities that I had. You know, just as I continued to look for additional learnings, additional responsibilities, I said, well, I'll take responsibility for this. And in that capacity, I had a chance to partner with our philanthropy colleagues and our technology colleagues and bring to fruition our first iteration of a global merchant processing platform to replace our legacy. One that was US Dollars only and English only. And not quite overnight. I mean, it was a year's plus worth of work. But we launched a website for merchant processing that was in 12 currencies, all of our rotary supported languages. It began the process of transforming how we are able to connect with our donors in a way that we can speak to them in their language and preserve tax benefits where there are local affiliated foundations, which is another, another really important consideration for us because where there are opportunities to receive a tax benefit for a contribution, we want to make sure that they can take advantage of that.

So I spoke to one of my previous CFOs I've recruited for and recruited within housing association based in the uk. Interesting campaign and everything else. But remember talking to Mark Washer, previous CFO there, and I said to him, somebody had said to him in one of their previous meetings, oh well, you're a charity. So, well, we're not actually we are a housing association. But the reason we do things is actually different. You know, we serve our members and we reinvest in them too. And the profits we reinvest to provide a safer housing. And this is what we do do and this is our reason being rather than give it to shareholders, there are quasi shareholders and, and securing the, you know the, the future of those guys is, is key. Is that the sort of ethos a little bit with Rotary Group as well. What's that been like for you as you've grown the position? Because you've actually gone as you say, you know, let's look at it. You know, you started. This is a lesson for anyone. Listen, that cash management back in 2005, you're the director of treasury in 2016. So give us a walkthrough of that if you would.

As I said before, it's part of it is just willingness to take on additional responsibility and then a willingness to take that forward. If that experience with working closely with colleagues, especially in accounts receivable group had something to do with learning more about their processes, then that opportunity to then take responsibility for accounts receivable made a little more sense. And it was something that I proposed. We had gone through organizationally in 2011 following the hiring of new CEO a lot of organizational transformation but finance had largely stayed as, as it was structured. And one of the things that I suggested and could have gone either way was bringing together all of the aspects of working capital management. Now treasury has always had responsibility for working capital but not always responsible for the actual pieces of working capital. So accounts receivable, accounts payable and treasury cash management. Of course the relationships with accounts payable and accounts receivable which we'd always had but not always the responsibility for oversight. And I proposed that as part of a finance reorg and we started that process in 2012, effective beginning of 2013 really where I took the opportunity to start overseeing accounts receivable. And that was again a tremendous learning experience. I was pretty familiar with contributions from just from my experience working with our multi currency credit card processing platform. But learning about how we invoiced all of our member clubs globally, learning about the other business processes we were responsible for. It was a great experience and provided the groundwork to transform how we did our invoicing. There was an opportunity presented because one of our, one of our then board directors had a strong interest in being able to get timelier membership data. We are a membership organization and how we're able to attract members, how we're able to bring in new members, retain existing members. I mean, it's a challenge for us as much as it is for any other membership organization. And the legacy way by which we had done our invoicing, it was kind of a circular process. You know, we can't generate a proper invoice unless we have proper membership data. But we were using the invoice to get the membership data and it just, it just went in this loop for years and years, kind of based on, again, based on sort of how, how the organization had always operated. And it was through a conversation with one of our directors that presented this opportunity to say, well, let's take what has become the circular process and let's make it linear. Instead of trying to get the membership information from the invoice, let's get the membership information upfront and then the invoice should just follow that. It sounds so simple. And yet as an organization we struggled to make that change for years. And sometimes it just takes a fresh set of eyes and someone at a higher level with a particular interest and then you can make great things happen. And over the course of the following year, partnering with our Accounts Receivable team, our IT team, our club and district support team, our offices outside the us, our communications group, because producing an invoice was one of the most visible things that my team did. And so it was a change management opportunity as well. And again, having this champion at the highest level of our organization. And over the course of a year we were able to completely simplify how we did our invoicing from what was a packet that came with instructions that was about gathering membership information as well as trying to receive a payment, having a, to a one page document that was a simplified invoice with clear payment instructions. And the whole process for everyone from top to bottom just got so much easier.

Yeah. And from that, I know that again when we spoke previously, we were talking a little bit about the future treasury and it's a sort of double question, but you know, I try not to ask these, but I know you've got involved with, you know, a number of things with the afp, the US association, where I'll be speaking later this year. But you sort of contributed there and you active in that. Is that where you see, you know, the development of treasury or where are you seeing treasury growing and developing to what, what's sort of coming along the line if you look night, would you say for people?

I think one of the things that we're trying to find in particular it's actually a current challenge. Our colleagues are starting to travel again internationally and some of them to some of the more remote areas, some of the more developing countries. And prior to the pandemic, we would send them with a cash advance, which isn't necessarily best practice, but it made sense so that they could make payments to individuals, to small shops that, that didn't accept credit cards. Well, now with the pandemic happened, so many of these places have, they've jumped from cash to cashless to mobile payment solution. So even if we were to send, send colleagues with cash, which again we have, we have a number of concerns about, it doesn't necessarily fill the gap. So how do we help them fill that gap? And it's not like we have field offices in many of these locations, whereas some of our other industry peers, they have offices in many of these countries. So their staff that's resident there, they have access to all these mobile money solutions. But what do we do? It's a recent and kind of interesting challenge to try and work through and find. It may not be one, it may be a series of possible solutions to try and fill that gap. Because if I'm in a country in sub Saharan Africa and I'm outside of a major city and they don't accept a corporate card and they don't accept cash, what do we do? And we haven't had to answer that question until, until just recently. Now we've got to, now we have to figure that out. So there's, there's always an interesting challenge that and 20 years ago, whoever heard of mobile money? I mean, it's the whole, the whole thing just didn't exist. Yeah, so that's, it just shows how much we continue to evolve and will continue to evolve.

Yeah, you're right. It's an interesting one. I, you know, I went to, got my haircut and the barbers recently, oh, you've got any money? I was like, what? Yeah, cash money. And I went, what? No, it's been, you know, I felt like it's been made illegal, you know, you're not allowed to touch it. You're gonna wear a mask and be careful. And I was like, oh. A friend of mine said the other day, oh yeah, I always carry some round, you know, just in case. Just case what? You know, just, you know, it's a little bit, throws you a curveball a little bit in, in that sense, particularly for treasury as well. You, you guys have seen this. Years ago we had the treasurer for Brinks man, he said, you know, yes, Cash is changing, but it's still there. But I think this is certainly accelerated a lot of things. You know, it sounds like you've been through the same sort of thing.

Yes, yes.

And so, you know, before we wrap up today's show, sort of, what other things do you think? You know, Again, some of the listeners you, we give you some of the questions and the, you know, answers we might ask and some of that stuff. But what are you thinking that the audience listening today should be thinking about, you know, what should be on their checklist or other things, do you think, you know, maybe post pandemic or whatever else it might be? What are you thinking is something that people should be aware of, do you think?

I think there has to be, you know, willingness to be flexible, whether it's trying to look at situations with a fresh set of eyes, not always bringing the same solution to a problem. That may have worked. The solution may have worked fine five years ago, but it may not work today. Flexible in terms of just work arrangements. I think that for us, we're still working remotely and don't have a fixed, any return to office date. And what I hear from my team, and I've experienced this myself, is there's not a large desire to return working in a physical office on an ongoing basis. And if we want to be able to retain our talented team members, if we want to be able to attract new ones, we really need to be thoughtful about our approach to that return or not. As the case may be. Some organizations are very much dressed for your day work for your day, and I think we have to really be thoughtful about taking that into consideration as we, as we move forward.

Yeah, no, I think that's exactly right. We, we do our global treasury salary survey way back when. Craig, my colleague, he said, you know, let's. Can we ask these other questions about how many days people are working from home? And obviously at the time, you know, semi, you know, it was locked down most of the time it was, you know, the thing to be done, but then it was like, okay, well then what's going to be the return to work, but also what do people want to work? Just as you've touched on there, Rick, that it's sort of, it's a different world.

And I just think how naive we were at the beginning. I mean, I'm sure immunologists and virologists, they all, they all knew how it was going to go. But I remember we, we all thought, oh, we'll be back in a couple of weeks. We'll see in a few weeks. It just, it just seems so absurd now to look back and think that it was going to be a few weeks or a few months. And, you know, here we are over two years later. The transformation that has happened as a result.

Well, as we, you know, we keep our shows to what was a typical commute time for people in, in the olden days. Yeah. So all of three years ago. So 25, 30 minutes and things like that. We're approaching that sort of time. We'll put your LinkedIn details in the show notes because I think you've got some good having you in there. People in their network, as it were. What would you sort of what bits of advice looking back over your career over, you know, a number of different places and say you're involved with AFP and various other things, but as you reflect on it, what's the advice you would give to other treasury professionals if they want to get to the role of Treasury Director or otherwise? What are you thinking?

I mean, nothing replaces hard work. I mean, I think that is, that's crucial. You know, strong work ethic, high attention to detail, willingness to take responsibilities outside of your specific role or comfort zone, willingness to continue to learn and continue to grow. And not always expecting an immediate promotion or an immediate bump in salary. Some of that just will come if you're in the right organization or maybe you take that experience to another one, depending on your circumstances. But not thinking that I'm going to do this thing or this extra assignment or whatever, and then in three months I'm going to get a promotion or I'm going to receive some sizable salary bump. I think it's having the long game in mind and having a longer perspective on this will all benefit me in the long run. And that I will either receive that, that's more tangible recognition here, or I will take that experience and I will go elsewhere. I've been fortunate that I've been able to continue my career where I am. I work with a wonderful group of people. I work with an organization that's very supportive, really believes, I think, in a very meaningful way, work, life balance, which I very much value in an organization that I think really does value its people, really sees that it's all of us working together that can accomplish amazing things. It's not just one star, one sole standout. It's all of us together working in a collaborative way and just knowing that over time the money will take care of itself, the position will take care of itself. If those things are important to you and being realistic and knowing not everyone wants to be at a particular level. And that's okay. I think that's one thing we've all learned from the pandemic is that there's a lot more outside of work that is valuable and maybe prior to pandemic, focus, depending on the individual or their industry, all consuming work, work, work all the time. For some people, that's great. It's not for everyone. And I think for those of us where we want to have a broader life experience, where we've got families, we've got other interests, and it's really given us all an opportunity to rethink some of what those priorities are, some roles. Depending on the circumstances, it's always going to be more demanding. It's always going to be more hours, more time. And that's okay if that's what you want. But I think it's important to be honest about what you want. And it's okay to say, you know, I'm good where I am.

Yeah, be patient.

I'm okay with where I am. I'm okay with this point because there are other things that I want to do.

Yeah. And they've got to own it and that. You're right. I've scribbled some notes. Here is about owning it, but being patient. And then not always. You know, we get a lot of the time where we're talking to candidates and they're always measuring themselves. Oh, this person moved on. This person. And as you proved, you don't have to always move on. You know, if you're happy in it and you're, you know, it doesn't mean you're just settling and just, oh, that's it. You know, you're a Treasury director, you know, you've moved up and everything else. But we had our pre call and you said, mike, sometimes just takes time. Just be relaxed in your own skin. So I think amazing takeaways, I think. And any final closing words from you, I'll leave them to you because I love, love it when I talk to guests and they're giving these nuggets of gold. And anything finally to say to the.

Audience, I stay in treasury because I, because I genuinely enjoy it. I enjoy particularly the challenge of the internationality where I am today. I enjoy the fact that we continue to change, that it's not the same treasury that it was five years ago, certainly not 10 years ago. And that opportunity that we have to add meaningful value, we're doing tangible things with tangible funds, whether it's domestically or globally. We get a chance to really add tangible value. It's one of the things that attracted me to the profession. It's one of the things that keeps me in the profession. And I still enjoy that. I still enjoy finding ways to save the organization thousands of dollars. I still enjoy finding ways of boosting our yield. Not that interest rates are that great, but they're getting marginally better. Anything we can do to improve a process, even if that's an intangible positive benefit, but we can quantify that benefit in terms of a time savings. I love doing that. And it's one of the things I still enjoy. And still, again, I think where we sit in that intersection of planning for the future and recording what happened in the past, we live in the now. We have to be able to adapt to that. And I think successful treasury professionals have done that and will continue to do that.

Amazing as always. But as I put here, you have Mr. Rick Barrett, patiently providing tangible value is exactly what treasury is all about. Look at that. That's a nice little moniker to have on your LinkedIn profile. That'd be rather nice. So Rick, amazing to talk to you. Look forward to hopefully seeing you later this year and catching up. But thank you very much for your time today, sir. I think people have some lovely takeaways and been great talking. Thanks very much.

Thank you, Mike.

Thank you, sir. Hello, it's Mike here again. I hope you enjoyed this week's show. If you did, then maybe you want to follow the show or subscribe, depending on where you listen, whether that's itunes, Spotify or another great place to listen to the show from. It's totally free and means that you'll be the first, first to see each and every week when we release a new show. And maybe whilst you're there, you could even leave a quick review. Reviews and ratings are among the most important metrics for a podcast to effectively rank. And as you can probably appreciate, the podcast is a lot of hard work to produce every week and be amazing. Just take say 20 seconds, leave a quick review of my amazing guests and their great career stories. We'd really appreciate, appreciate it. Thanks very much and I can't wait to see you soon.