In this monologue, Mike Richards recaps the largest ever Treasury Career Corner Live event held in London, which attracted over 100 treasury professionals. The program featured 30 senior treasury leaders in roundtables and introduced a new "Ask the Treasurer" session where analysts and managers engaged directly with senior treasurers Stuart Case (Sky) and Tanya Holder (Accrishaw), resulting in 24 participants asking career‑focused questions. Richards highlights the event’s energetic feedback and emphasizes that career advancement in treasury is driven by strong professional networks. He shares panel anecdotes from Mike Tackley, Joanne McCormack, and Louise Woodruff about securing roles through networking, and recounts a treasurer who had to rebuild his network after neglecting it. Richards delivers practical networking advice—start yesterday, then today, by arranging coffee meetings, phone calls, and genuine relationship building beyond superficial LinkedIn connections. He concludes by announcing a series of upcoming events in Chicago, New York, Eurofinance, Treasury 3, London (November), and Amsterdam, urging attendees to proactively cultivate their own networks.
Chapters
We had an incredible night in London last night. We had our largest, biggest ever Treasury Career Corner Live in London. Over 100 Treasury professionals in the room. In the afternoon, we had 30 Treasury leaders take part in our roundtables. And then we also had analysts, managers joining us for our Ask the Treasurer session. But it wasn't just the numbers. It was actually all the feedback, all the energy coming from those guys. I noticed at some of our previous events, at the end of the night, there are some badges left on the desk. But usually they're the ones for the analysts, the managers, the guys who are really busy. And they'll say, "Oh, come next time." But they didn't realize how much they were missing out. So this time I created Ask the Treasurer. We got together Stuart Case from Sky and Tanya Holder from Accrishaw, and they got to sit with these analysts and managers. And I thought, let's hope a few people turn up. By the end, we had 24 treasury analysts and managers sitting with them, quizzing them, asking them questions, ask them what mistakes did you make, what advice should I get, what should I be doing? And they came out and they were like, Mike, that was incredible. I've got to see you sit with two amazing treasurers. And that's what I've been talking about in the newsletter, that you guys build your careers through your networks. On our panel, for instance, both Mike Tackley from Howden and Joanne McCormack both shared similar stories. They also— and Louise also joined in, Louise Woodruff. She talks about how She keeps an active network with recruiters, obviously mainly me. I've told her about that, but also the other guys were talking about how they got their jobs through their networks. And that was one of the things I talked about in the new— this week's newsletter. One of the treasurers who reached out to me, he said, I've not been working on my network for a while now. Now unexpectedly he's finding a role, needing to find a role. He's having to rebuild his network. He's having to go back to basics, if you like, and start again. He's like, 'Yeah, I made a mistake there, didn't I?' I was like, 'Exactly.' But this is one of the key things. As I talked about, our event is about networking on steroids. That's the great thing. And I said on stage, 'When's the best time to start working on network? Yesterday. Second best time? Today.' Now what does that mean? That means go for a coffee, pick up the phone, speak to your bank, speak to your colleagues, reach out and build your network. Keep those relationships alive, not just on LinkedIn 'Oh, we should connect.' Yeah, connect. Go for a coffee, maybe, maybe a drink. Enjoy it. Because, 'No, but Mike, I'm not looking for a job.' What if a job comes looking for you? So to finish off, last night's event was incredible. We've got more coming up later this year. We go Chicago in October, followed straight away by New York, where we're doing again— we'll do roundtables and Ask the Treasurer there. And then we'll head— I'll be doing loads of other industry conferences like Eurofinance and Treasury 3, and then I'm also going to be doing back to London in November, and then we'll do our Amsterdam one as well to finish off the year. So basically, my advice to you is start networking, please. You don't have to just network with me, you can build it yourselves. So please do. All right, thanks very much.
