What influences impact a treasury career with Martijn van Steenpaal

I started there as a Treasury manager to support the interim treasurer, but. But after six months, basically permanent treasurer was recruited. And I have to say that that this guy, his name is Tom Swabe, is probably the guy that has had kind of most influence on my career or at least on the way treasury is being practiced. He and I built the treasury group there from let's say the two of us to group of eight, nine people. With me building a cash management infrastructure. He mainly focusing on the financing and recruited people over time implement infrastructure, implemented cash pools across the globe, across hundreds of different legal entities, multiple countries and so forth. He kind of learned me to think more in terms of getting things done versus being the treasury professional, or I should probably say the treasury professional versus the business partner was a pretty difficult job at that time to get things done. Major acquisitions were done. It was pretty decentralized organization and we wanted to centralize part of the treasury activities and all the people on board to get things done. And you know, that, that really changed my attitude and my way of working a lot. Driven by kind of his, his spirit and open, open mind to change things and also to, you know, sometimes compromise in maybe not having the perfect solution from a Treasury perspective, but you know, having a solution and keep the people on board. I think he was, he was very good at that. Darling was a. Prior to acquiring Veon Ingredients was a pretty much a domestic company as such. Didn't have, you know, the treasury organization to kind of absorb this new organization into. So that gave me the opportunity to basically build the whole treasury organization from scratch. For the international organization is what we refer to now as you know, previously V on Ingredients that was really everything. Building or implementing a new. Selecting and implementing a new treasury management system that we've ultimately are using for the whole group now doing all kind of projects in the various regions in the world from cash management, FX policies, the whole policy framework, SOX implementation that referred to on the engine now also had to be introduced into the new organization that Darling acquired certain financing facilities. Even though the corporate finance function was was here in Texas. There were a number of financing facilities that we, that we were implementing. And I think ultimately and then I think different than under Amgen had a very intensive relationship with the US over here. The treasurer for him was kind of this whole big acquisition as they doubled in size with this acquisition and the international aspects of it was also new for the organization and the him. So we had to collaborate pretty closely. And so that was a totally different setting as with Amgen and you know from financial restructuring, we went back to, you know, building a Treasury organization. And obviously there was a lot of fun because, you know, from my perspective and kind of at my stage in my career, I'm looking for challenges and, you know, ways to add value to the company rather than, you know, being part of a very steady, stable treasury community and, let's say, do my thing. And that was, yeah, that were very interesting year. Take as many opportunities as you get, especially in the beginning of your career. Do different things. Don't stick to kind of doing the same routine every day. But change, are open for change, whether that's within your company, whether that change of companies, whether that's accepting a job outside of your home, so to speak, your home base. Do that. Because I think the more you, you do, the more different things you do, the more you learn and the more you develop yourself. The other kind of lesson I learned is we in the treasury world sometimes get to live in our own little bulb and are sometimes over engineering, kind of approaching our challenges, sometimes a little bit too academically. And that makes it sometimes difficult to get things actually done. Sometimes just also be pragmatic and get things done and maybe, you know, score the 90% and not the 100% that you intended. And then I think the further you get into your career, you know, the more important it's going to be to have your network both inside and as well as outside your company. And I think that's going to determine whether you're going to be successful or not.