What Do You Think About The Women In Treasury Initiative?

Hello, it's Mike Richards here from the treasury recruitment company. I hope you're enjoying the Treasury Career Corner. If you are great news, perhaps you give us a rating on itunes or wherever you consume your podcast content. This means that even more treasury professionals can benefit from finding out or by finding out about how treasurers have achieved their career goals. The link to rate our show will list at the bottom of our show notes. And please remember as well, the show itself is as much about you as it is about us. There are specific questions you want us to ask or there's feedback you want to give. Please drop me an email. My direct email is mikeresuryrecruitment.com inventibly enough, but anyway, that's enough from me. Let's get on with the show. Welcome to the Treasury Career Corner. In this, the final episode of our five part series, Ask eight Treasury Professionals, what do they think of recent developments within the treasury professions, such as the Women in Treasury initiative and similar sexual equality challenges within the workplace. Andreas Weindel the ex Group Treasurer, Haribo.

Holdings when you talk about women in treasury, it's very interesting because it tends to be also the accountant, by the way, that it's a women's profession. So what I see is a lot cash management and liquidity management where really have to be nitty gritty details is done by women.

Yeah.

Whether like the foreign exchange management for example, or financial markets is more driven by men, that might shift but it's an interesting development though.

Andrew Bishop Head of Treasury Operations, Gazprom.

Marketing and Trading Look, I mean just within our company, not within treasury in particular, our executive committee have tried to sort of display the need to kind of be a bit more diverse, not just with women but different cultures. So in my company there's lots of, I think there's like 20 different nationalities in there. I personally like in my team to have a good balance. We've got pretty much a 50, 50 split between women and men. And you know, I firmly put of a thought into kind of like people's capability rather than their sex or their gender or their, you know, where they're from. So, you know, I can see the kind of the PC side to it coming a lot more now.

Yeah.

But yeah, I think that will happen not just in treasury, but across all industries and all departments of industries, I think.

So it's not just about being a woman, it's actually as you say, wider than that as well.

Yeah, exactly, yeah. I mean I certainly wouldn't want to be in a position where you know, you've got kind of sort of almost like a positive discrimination. You've got to a certain venture numbers that you have to be. I just don't think that's helpful for anyone.

Anne Marie Moore Director of Treasury Services.

Plan International I find it sad. It's required, but it is required. And when in 20 years ago I was very anti the sort of force to actually get free quality, I think it should be, should have been the best person for the job. More recently I've heard other people talking and I understand now that you're not going to be able to prove that your best person for the job until you've actually got that equality in the first place because there's a subconscious bias and people recruit like. And so if you have got a generally male environment, subconsciously it's going to be a male dominated recruitment process. So sadly the, the fight for equality and events like women in the focus of women in treasury is required. Shame, but it is required. I went to an act lunch and I went, you know the buffet type thing, you're standing around and I went to a table where another lady was standing and we chatted and another lady came over, another lady came over, another lady came over and all the women in the room, we just focused and we just huddled around one table. And today, funnily enough, same thing happened. There's a group of women sitting together, I'm one of them. And why is that? Why do we feel comfortable with each other? Yeah, why? Yeah, it's just a natural, it's a natural instinct and we shouldn't feel more comfortable with each other. But for some reason that's, that's happened.

Damien Glendenning EX Treasurer, LENOVO well, I.

Think they are very much, they're great initiatives, they're very much to be encouraged. I think one thing we all need to be realistic about, and most women I know are realistic about this, is that it's not a level playing field, that at the end of the day, as long as women play a bigger role in bringing up kids, a lot of the things that you need to do to have a successful career involve being mobile, being able to travel. And it is, we have to recognize, and I think we do everybody a favor by looking the facts in the face, it is harder for women. Now that means that we need to make allowances and we all need to understand it and be more flexible. But at the same time it is a challenge. So I think it's fantastic people are doing these things, but I think it's naive to think that that's going to make the problem disappear overnight.

Yeah, it's something to be worked at.

Sort of thing and it's going to be very hard work and at the end of the day it is difficult.

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Lucky because I work in an organization where we have a lot of women. My deputy CEO is a woman. The CEO is a man. We previously had a CFO that's a woman. So we do have a lot of women in my company and in executive positions it is good to have a diversity in all types, you know, gender, professions, education, backgrounds. So it adds value if you have more people from different levels, so different backgrounds. So it's the same regarding with women.

Oliver Ice Group Treasurer Johnson Matthey PLC.

My experience is actually that there was a very good gender balance in all treasury departments I've worked in and I've also worked for a couple of female group treasurers in sizable companies. And in my current department I've got a very good gender split, even a ratio where actually I've got more women than men overall in my team globally and I think every company in every department is different. But my experience is that there is actually quite a good gender balance in Treasury. But when I in the, in the teams in the companies that I've worked in. But I do see at conferences or other events that there is. There's maybe more work to be done to attract more women into treasury, but I do think that's happening.

Rasmus Camborder Melvang Treasury Manager Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia as well.

I don't look at whether it's a female or male. I have a team of seven members and all of them are women. So I might not be the right person to talk to in regards to why haven't you any women? So for me it's having the qualified people and not so much if they're young and old or if they are men and women or they are from. I'm from Denmark. If they're from Denmark or from England and from India, I really don't care. I'm interested in that we have a project that we buy into together, that we support each other, that we are always in the front end of educating each other as an organization and individually we support each other. And that's most important for me.

Sam Pitt EX Group Treasurer Network Rail.

I'm on a Women in treasury panel at the this conference shortly. I think we've got some stats that we're going to present that at the junior level there's a good gender mix, but the more senior you get, there is a lower gender mix and the older, when you do it by age as well.

Okay.

Apparently, you know, there's less. I don't know. I don't know whether it's where people feel, you know, I may not just be the same in treasury, but in any senior position, you know, the balancing, you know, especially if you have family, balancing a career and a family. And it's down to the company to be organisation to be flexible. And I think a lot of big corporates now are waking up to that and having diversity and inclusion programs. It's not just about gender. You know, you look at, you know, in the UK as well, black, Asians and ethnic minorities. There is an underrepresentation of that group as well at a senior level.