The Treasury Career Corner

What does it take to keep growing when treasury, technology and leadership are constantly evolving?

In this episode we chat with Anika Williams the Head of Treasury and Customer Payment Operations at Zalando Payments to explore why choosing difficult challenges, stepping outside your comfort zone and maintaining a learning mindset can be crucial to continued development in treasury.

Anika Williams is Head of Treasury and Customer Payment Operations at Zalando Payments, where she combines treasury leadership with responsibility for a significant operations function.

Working within Zalando’s technology-driven payments business, Anika oversees treasury in a regulated environment while managing the challenges that come with high volumes of customer transactions, evolving compliance requirements, automation and AI.

She also leads a team of around 40 people and is actively involved in mentoring and Berlin’s treasury community.

In this conversation, Anika shares her perspective on what modern treasury leadership looks like and why professionals should actively seek out difficult projects and opportunities to learn.

She discusses the changing role of treasury, from operational activities towards greater CFO advisory, alongside the impact of technology, data and AI. Anika also explores why the biggest challenge around AI may not be the technology itself, but having the right people and mindset to keep adapting as the definition of “good” continues to change.

The conversation also covers leadership, mentoring, operations and the importance of learning from mistakes. Above all, Anika encourages treasury professionals to be bold, stay humble and never stop learning.

What we discuss:

• How treasury at Zalando Payments manages high volumes of customer payments and seasonal cash flows
• Why compliance plays such an important role within a regulated payments business
• How data science and technology can complement traditional treasury expertise
• Why people and mindset may be a bigger AI challenge than the technology itself
• How the role of treasury is becoming increasingly focused on CFO advisory
• What leading a team of around 40 people has taught Anika about leadership
• Why mentoring and learning from people outside treasury can broaden your perspective
• Why treasury professionals should choose difficult projects and step outside their comfort zones

You can connect with Anika Williams on LinkedIn.

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AI in treasury has moved well beyond experimentation. As the technology matures, treasury teams have more opportunities to automate manual work, connect their data and free up valuable time for higher-value activities.

In this episode of the Treasury Career Corner, Mike Richards catches up with James Kelly, Co-Founder of Your Treasury, to explore how AI is changing the way treasury teams operate and why now is the time to start embracing it.

Through Your Treasury, James works with treasury teams to solve practical challenges using AI, automation and better use of data, helping them rethink processes that have traditionally required significant amounts of manual work.

A lot can change in 15 months in the world of AI.

Since Mike and James last spoke, treasury teams have moved from asking about potential AI use cases to exploring how the technology can solve real problems. James explains how developments such as AI agents are putting more powerful tools directly into the hands of treasury professionals, without always requiring extensive IT resources.

He shares practical examples of what this looks like, including cash forecasting processes reduced from dozens of hours to just a few hours and a pensions reporting process cut from more than two days to around 30 minutes.

James also discusses why many treasury challenges are ultimately data challenges, where human judgement remains essential, and why treasury professionals need both enthusiasm and carefulness when adopting AI.

What we discuss:

• How AI adoption in treasury has changed over the past 15 months.
• Why AI agents are giving treasurers greater autonomy over end-to-end workflows.
• Why so many treasury challenges ultimately come back to disconnected, inconsistent or poor-quality data.
• How cash forecasting can be redesigned from a heavily manual process into a more automated, data-driven workflow.
• How AI can help treasury teams tackle FX exposures, KYC, account opening and contract monitoring.
• How one pensions reporting process was reduced from more than two days of work to around 30 minutes.
• Why James starts AI training by encouraging treasury professionals to explore the technology before applying it to treasury-specific problems.
• Why enthusiasm for AI needs to be balanced with accuracy, careful review and choosing the right tool for the task.

You can connect with James Kelly on LinkedIn.

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What started with one conversation in 2018 has grown into 450 podcast episodes, Treasury Career Corner LIVE events, Senior Treasury Roundtables and Ask the Treasurer sessions across the world.

In this special episode, Mike Richards looks back at where the Treasury Career Corner podcast began, the career questions that have remained consistent and how a bloke in a shed with a microphone became part of a much wider treasury community.

This special solo episode is hosted by Mike Richards, CEO and Founder of The Treasury Recruitment Company and host of the Treasury Career Corner podcast.

For eight years, Mike has spoken with treasury professionals about where they started, the challenges they faced, the decisions that changed their careers and the lessons they would share with those following behind them

The Treasury Career Corner podcast began in 2018 with Sarah-Jane Hall and a simple idea: sit down with great treasury professionals and ask them about their careers.

And it’s that first conversation with Sarah-Jane Hall, remains the podcast’s most downloaded episode to date.

Eight years and 450 episodes later, the podcast has grown into a wider treasury community. Alongside the weekly interviews, Treasury Career Corner now includes LIVE events, Roundtables for senior treasury leaders and Ask the Treasurer sessions for analysts, managers and those earlier in their careers.

In this episode, Mike revisits some of the archive’s most popular conversations and the career themes that treasury professionals continue to ask about today.

What We Cover

• How the first episode with Sarah-Jane Hall became the podcast’s most downloaded conversation
• The journey from one episode in 2018 to nearly 450 weekly episodes
• How Treasury Career Corner expanded from a podcast into LIVE events
• The development of Treasury Round Tables for senior treasury leaders
• How Ask the Treasurer connects developing professionals directly with experienced treasury leaders
• Why career development, learning and leadership remain consistent themes
• Moving into treasury and progressing beyond technical expertise
• The growing impact of technology, digitalisation and AI on treasury careers

Top 10 downloaded Treasury Career Corner episodes

1. Inside the Mind of a Global Treasurer with Sarah-Jane Hall
2. The Evolving Nature of an International Treasury Career with Wolfgang Ratheiser
3. Why Learning is Not a Luxury in Treasury with Mina Nasif
4. How to Develop a Successful Treasury Department with Nick Taylor
5. Digitalization & AI: Transforming Treasury in the Luxury Industry with LVMH’s Burak Yildirim
6. Transitioning from Banking to Corporate Treasury with Ben Loper
7. Career Pointers for Newcomers to the World of Treasury with Thomas Balish
8. How to Develop Competence in Treasury with George Terziev
9. Steps to Treasury Success with Gary McGuire
10. How Gary McGuire Climbed the Treasury Career Ladder

Choose an episode you have not heard before or return to a conversation that helped you earlier in your career.

Thank you to every guest who has shared their treasury career and everyone who has listened.

Treasury transformation is not just about implementing new technology. It is about improving processes, understanding the business, giving teams the capacity to deliver change, and ensuring technology creates measurable value.

In this episode, John James Dunne the Founder and Principal of Elevate Treasury Advisory explores how treasury teams can use technology, data and external support to drive meaningful strategic change - while avoiding the mistake of simply automating inefficient processes.

John James Dunne is the Founder and Principal of Elevate Treasury Advisory, supporting CFOs, treasurers and finance leaders with treasury transformation, liquidity, risk, governance and technology.

He is also involved in treasury education and developing the next generation of treasury professionals through his work with the Irish Association of Corporate Treasurers.

In this conversation, John James shares his perspective on what makes treasury transformation successful and why technology alone is rarely the answer.

He explains the importance of getting processes into the right shape before implementing a treasury management system, creating early wins to maintain momentum during long transformation projects, and using data to help senior leaders make better decisions.

The discussion also explores why many treasury teams benefit from external support when internal capacity is already stretched, how treasury professionals can become stronger business partners, and why technical expertise must be matched by communication, judgement and an understanding of the wider business.

Main Topics Discussed:

• Why treasury transformation should begin with process improvement before technology implementation
• How external support can provide additional capacity for treasury teams delivering major projects
• The challenges of implementing a treasury management system while maintaining business-as-usual activity
• Why creating early wins during transformation projects helps free capacity and maintain team momentum
• How treasury teams can use Power BI, dashboards and self-service analytics to support C-suite decision-making
• Why treasury professionals need to understand the underlying business, not just the treasury numbers
• The risks of becoming over-reliant on AI and technology without understanding the fundamentals
• Why communication, influencing and business partnering skills become increasingly important as treasury professionals progress

You can connect with John James Dunne on LinkedIn.

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What do treasury professionals want from their careers now, and what do companies need to change if they want to hire the best people?

In this special episode, Mike Richards is joined by Katie Hardy from The Treasury Recruitment Company to compare notes on how treasury careers, hiring and candidate expectations have changed.

They explore job titles, salaries, hybrid working, skills, networking and why both candidates and clients need to think differently about the treasury market today.

After seven years working together, Mike and Katie take a practical look at what they are hearing every day from treasury professionals and hiring managers across the UK, Europe and US.

They discuss why treasury job titles can mean completely different things from one company to another, and why candidates are looking beyond salary at progression, flexibility, leadership, culture and what a new role will actually add to their career.

Mike and Katie also compare salary and hybrid working expectations across the US, UK and Europe, including why the same role cannot simply be benchmarked in the same way across different locations.

On the hiring side, they look at why companies need to challenge old job descriptions, identify the genuine non-negotiables and stop searching for a perfect candidate while expecting to pay below the market.

For treasury professionals, the message is equally practical. Show what you have achieved, keep your CV and LinkedIn profile up to date, benchmark your salary and build your network before you need your next job.

They also discuss why interviews are a two-way process, why good candidates need to be sold the opportunity and why slow hiring processes can cost companies the people they really want.

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Mike Richards joined the ACT Annual Conference 2026 in Liverpool for the roundtable session “Treasury Talent: Skills for the Future”, held in May 2026.

This session explored the future skills treasury professionals will need as AI and automation take on more routine and analytical work.

Together, the panel discussed how treasury roles are changing, where human judgement still matters, whether teams may become leaner and more strategic, and what hiring managers should be looking for when building future treasury teams.

Speakers included:

• Mike Richards, CEO & Founder at The Treasury Recruitment Company
• Alan Chitty, Group Treasurer at Pepco
• Victoria Underwood, Treasury Manager from Imperial Brands

The session was facilitated by Louise Woodroffe, Head of Treasury from Hastings Direct, in association with the ACT Future Leaders in Treasury.

Key topics discussed:

00:00 Session Kick-off

00:46 Format and Participation

01:25 Meet the Panel

03:45 AI Adoption Today

04:57 Copilot vs Claude Debate

08:25 What Humans Still Do

10:17 Jobs and Team Reshaping

13:44 Recruitment Market Shift

15:18 Hiring for Future Skills

19:22 Communication and Impact

24:41 Networking and Visibility

26:55 Training Juniors in AI Era

30:40 Hiring for Attitude

31:08 Interviewing for Curiosity

34:30 Psychometrics and CV Signals

37:00 Future Skills in Treasury

40:54 Treasury Plus Networking

43:15 Soft Skills Simplify Jargon

46:04 AI Written CVs and Interviews

49:44 Switching into Treasury

53:12 Career Skills and Communication

55:56 Roundtable and Wrap Up

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AI is reshaping how treasury professionals analyse information, manage workloads and make decisions.

In this episode, Manoj Panda, Vice President and Treasurer at Bausch + Lomb, draws on more than 20 years of global finance and treasury leadership experience to explain why the greatest risk may not be AI replacing treasury professionals, but AI-enabled colleagues outperforming those who fail to adapt.

Manoj Panda has extensive experience leading capital markets, IPO execution, debt financing, FX risk management and global treasury operations for Fortune 500 and public companies. In his current role as Vice President and Treasurer at Bausch + Lomb he oversees key areas including capital structure, cash management and financial risk management.

Throughout the conversation, Manoj reflects on how experience across risk management, capital markets and treasury operations helped him build the breadth required for senior leadership. He also explains why understanding the business behind the numbers is essential when managing complex financing transactions and communicating with investors, rating agencies and senior stakeholders.

The episode explores how treasurers can become trusted advisers by identifying problems early, presenting practical solutions and building strong relationships across the organisation. Manoj also shares how AI can improve productivity, accelerate decision-making and reduce data constraints, while emphasising that human judgement, technical expertise and the ability to ask the right questions will remain critical.

What We Cover in This Episode:

• How rotations across finance and treasury can strengthen long-term career development
• The value of combining capital markets experience with treasury operations
• How financing transactions differ across investment-grade and lower-rated businesses
• Why treasurers need a detailed understanding of business and cash-flow drivers
• How stakeholder management changes when moving into a treasury leadership role
• Why presenting solutions helps treasurers become trusted advisers to the CFO
• How hiring, empowering and connecting global teams improves performance
• The opportunities and risks AI presents for treasury professionals

You can connect with Manoj Panda on LinkedIn.

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Cash forecasting has transformed dramatically as treasury has moved from manual processes and spreadsheets to automation, APIs and AI.

But for Kim Kelly-Lippert, accurate forecasting still depends on something technology cannot replace: business understanding, strong relationships and human judgement.

Kim Kelly-Lippert is Manager, Treasury Operations at American Honda Motor Company, Inc. In this episode, she shares her perspective on cash forecasting, treasury leadership, technology, team development and the importance of building strong relationships across the business.

Kim joins the show to discuss how treasury continues to evolve and why professionals need to evolve with it. She explains why cash forecasting is both a science and an art, combining technology, historical trends and analytics with business knowledge, context and experience.

The conversation explores the transition from technical treasury expertise into leadership, developing high-performing teams, mentoring future treasury professionals and building valuable internal and external relationships. Kim also shares her perspective on automation and AI, including why treasury professionals should remain curious, keep learning and embrace the technologies changing the profession.

What We Cover in This Episode:

• Why cash forecasting is part science, part art and constantly changing.
• How technology, historical data and business context combine to improve forecasting.
• Why forecasting should be viewed as a business process, not only a treasury process.
• The shift from technical treasury expertise to leadership and setting direction.
• Why relationships, networks, mentors and sponsors matter throughout a treasury career.
• Building strong treasury teams through technical capability, people skills and character.
• How automation, real-time payments and AI are changing treasury.
• Why staying nimble, curious and open to change is essential for long-term growth.

You can connect with Kim Kelly-Lippert on LinkedIn.

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AI may be dominating the technology conversation, but delivering real value in treasury requires much more than adopting the latest tools.

Felix Meyer, Treasury Technology and IS Head at ABB Capital AG, returns to the show to explore why strong data, fit-for-purpose systems, cybersecurity awareness, effective project management and specialist knowledge are all essential to successful technology transformation.

Felix Meyer works as Treasury Technology and IS Head at ABB Capital AG, the in-house treasury and corporate finance centre of the ABB Group.

In his role, Felix oversees key treasury applications, reviews ABB’s internal technology landscape and assesses external systems and market developments to determine which solutions can deliver meaningful value within the organisation.

In this updated episode, Felix explains how treasury teams can respond to rapid technological change without becoming distracted by hype.

Drawing on a recent global treasury management system implementation, he discusses the importance of involving stakeholders early, selecting experienced implementation partners and setting realistic expectations around project timelines.

Felix also explores the foundations required before treasury teams can take advantage of AI, including harmonised data, system resilience, traceability and appropriate backups. The conversation covers cybersecurity, skills development, insourcing specialist knowledge and the potential for real-time payments to move corporate treasury closer to becoming truly real time.

Main topics discussed:

• Balancing internal treasury needs with developments in the external technology market.
• Why existing treasury systems must regularly be assessed to ensure they remain fit for purpose.
• Building clean, harmonised data foundations for AI and advanced analytics.
• Why cybersecurity is a direct treasury concern and how targeted training can reduce organisational risk.
• Lessons from delivering a global TMS rollout across approximately 45 countries.
• The importance of early stakeholder involvement, experienced partners and realistic timelines.
• Developing stronger technology, project management and communication skills in treasury.
• How insourcing specialist technology knowledge can improve response times and deliver value more quickly.

You can connect with Felix Meyer on LinkedIn.

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Luke Maclean, Senior Global Treasury Director at CBRE, joins this episode to explore why the future of treasury belongs to people who use AI, not people who fear it.

From automating repetitive work to leading global teams with trust, curiosity, and clarity, Luke shares how treasury professionals can stay valuable in a fast-changing world.

In this episode Mike is joined by Luke Maclean, Senior Global Treasury Director at CBRE.

Luke leads a global treasury function across multiple regions, with teams in Singapore, London, Latin America, and North America. His role covers regional treasury teams, FX, back office, systems, trade finance, and wider treasury operations.

Luke shares his perspective on what modern treasury leadership really requires, from understanding the operational “plumbing” of treasury to building trust across global teams and business functions.

A major focus of the conversation is AI. Luke explains why AI is not the value itself, but a tool that helps treasury teams unlock something far more valuable: their time. He shares how his team is using AI tools such as Claude to automate repetitive tasks, improve reporting, support cash forecasting, and give people more space to focus on strategic work.

The episode also covers leadership, hiring, culture, project management, systems transformation, and why treasury remains, above all else, a people business.

Topics discussed:

• Why AI is a tool for treasury, not a replacement for judgement.
• Why team time is the real value AI helps unlock.
• How automation can support better cash forecasting and reporting.
• How to lead global treasury teams across different regions and cultures.
• How leaders can step back without losing control.
• Why treasury professionals need to understand the operational “plumbing.”
• The hidden value of back office experience.
• How clear communication helps build consensus in complex organisations.
• How project management skills support treasury transformation.
• Why treasury is built on relationships, trust, and credibility.

You can connect with Luke Maclean on LinkedIn.

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