Why You Need a Variety of Skills and Experience in Treasury with Sean O'Connor

Foreign. I do think what's required to be successful in treasury is kind of changing. You know, I think ultimately you have to have an analytical side to your personality. You have to be good. They all cliche, be good with numbers. But I do think it's evolving more. I think we're seeing more people moving into treasury that are coming from maybe more kind of technical backgrounds as well. You know, like I think roles in like data scientists and business intelligence, you know, having those skill bases really help kind of drive, drive models and ultimately models influence how we make decisions. So I do think there's plenty of room within treasury teams for people coming from those more kind of, I wouldn't say it but like those more kind of technical backgrounds. Ultimately I think such a large portion of treasury is relationship management and people management and being able to collaborate, you know, it's one of the most important aspects of my role right now is being able to collaborate because as a Treasurer you have an influence or you have an interest in so many areas of the business, be it from across the whole finance org and your colleagues in tax, in accounting, in procurement, in AP and ar. Obviously we're vested in those areas but then we look sideways. We do a lot of work with our product guys around the whole receivable side because we manage our merchant services and alternative payment methods relationships. You look across us how important working with legal, working with your corporate development teams. So when you have that many stakeholders and ultimately treasury has evolved now into more of a service model I believe. So you know, you have to look at who are your internal customers and how do you serve them best and being able to I suppose manage and meet expectations. So I think collaboration and relationship management are such a cornerstone of effective kind of Treasury. I think it's important if you want to have a real successful career in treasury and really add value in your roles, you have to have experience the back office, the middle office, the front office, you know, and then it gives you that more holistic view on what needs to be done because how can you be expected as a Treasury leader to make decisions around the back office and the middle office in the front office if you've only ever walked in one, you know, you need to have that kind of bird's eye view on things to make the right decisions, to make value added decisions and you know, and also know the right people to bring into your team as well. So I totally recommend it to everyone to, to gain experience, to walk in different industries if possible, you know, like that and see what I mean as in on the industry side is more different types of companies staying within the treasury world, but working in companies that are tech or fms. CG are old school. PLC is everything. Whatever you can get involved in, I think it's ultimately going to add more skills to your base and add more understanding on. Well, look, just because it was done this way here, I've learned that that's not the best way to do it, that we can actually, you know, restructure or change how a process is done.