The Treasury Talent Podcast

Today we are joined by Matthew Fortunak, the Vice President, Treasurer at Owens Corning. The reason why we want to get him today as he had a really broad background working a long time with Delphi. He worked in treasury but also did a broad financial working strategy.

In this episode we discuss:

• How he came to the treasury and what made him choose treasury as a career
• His career highlights
• His preparations for his position now
• Maintaining relationships
• Growing with the company and its culture
• Mentorship in Matthew's perspective
• Key things he looks for when hiring people
• Skills that are important for Matthew
• When looking to grow in a career, should someone be seeking opportunities in their current role or look externally?
• Determining the company's culture
• Advice for someone who's from a more sophisticated treasury org into one that's further behind
• Advice for someone in the middle of a job search

Today I am joined on the podcast by Brian Moore, he's a Treasurer at McKesson. Brian has a diverse background across a number of businesses.

In this episode we discuss:

• How he came to the treasury and what made him choose it as a career
• His career highlights
• The difference of treasury from different areas
• His advice to others around broadening outside just being a treasury specific person
• Key learnings that would benefit people
• His approach to networking and his advice regarding it
• One piece of advice for the listeners that he wishes he had known when he was starting his career
• What he looks for in his direct reports
• What makes a successful treasurer in the eyes of the C-suite
• How is the role of treasurer changing based on technology advancement

Today I am joined by Edward Peña, the EVP & Treasurer at Liberty Mutual Insurance. He started his career in investment banking before switching to the corporate side.

In this episode we discuss:

• What brought Edward to the treasury
• The highlights of his career
• The challenge moving from investment banking to the corporate side
• His advice to others in making the move from banking to corporate
• His approach to networking
• Mentors as part of his career
• What is one thing he wishes he knew back then
• The key things when hiring
• What makes a successful treasurer in the eyes of the c-suite
• How is the role of treasurer changing

Today we're joined on Ask the Treasurer Live by Yang Xu, the treasurer at Kraft Heinz. She's been a popular podcast guest in the past, on a fast track to get to CFO.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Yang came to the treasury and why she chose treasury as a career
• Her career highlights
• What is the most challenging aspect for treasury today in Yang's perspective
• What Yang looks for in direct reports when hiring
• Her advice to those who are unemployed or unhappy with their role and want to make a change
• Her thoughts on CTP or CFA when looking at resumes
• The best advice she would give herself or to someone who's trying to advice her/his career

Today I am joined by Melissa Cameron. Melissa is a partner for the treasury advisory team at Deloitte.

In this episode we discuss:

• How she came to the treasury and what made her choose it
• Her career highlights so far
• The transition in becoming a global citizen
• Making the transition from banking into the consulting environments

Today I'm joined by Michael Braude, Michael is the treasurer at George Weston Foods and he's on for his regular economic forecast for treasurers.

In this episode we discuss:

• What's been happening in the market
• The currency
• The bond market
• What should treasurers be keeping their eyes in the next month

This is the second episode of "Ask a Treasurer Live" this is a new concept we brought to the table, very similar in format to the podcast but actually chatting live and interacting with your audience. In today's episode, we speak with Christian Bauwens, the Treasurer of Flex and has been with the company for 6 years. Flex is a global company with a small team of 28 people with people in the US, Europe, and China.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Christian came to treasury and what made him choose it
• Advice for someone making the switch from banking to the corporate side
• Some of his career highlights
• The advice he wishes he knew he had when transitioning from banking to treasury
• Forming networking relationship
• Key things he looks for in direct reports when hiring
• His view on education both for his career and when hiring for his team
• His view on the application blockchain technology in treasury
• His thoughts on RPA, machine learning, and automation in the treasury space

Today I am joined by Seth Marlowe, the head of Treasury Strategy at Synovus. He's also the current president of TMANY. I got him on the podcast because since he started his career in consulting, he then moved to corporate treasury and to banking.

In this episode we discuss:

• How he came to the treasury and what made him choose treasury as a career
• The highlight of his career
• Making the switch from corporate to banking
• The transition from IT to corporate treasury
• Exciting development and what in-store in TMANY
• His approach to networking in his career
• What he looks for when hiring direct reports
• What makes a successful treasurer in the eyes of the board

Today I have Zeeshan Naqvi, the treasurer at Diebold Nixdorf.

In this episode we discuss:

• How did Zeeshan get into treasury
• The highlights of his career
• What he wishes he had known when starting his career
• The key things he look for when hiring
• Ways to innovate the treasury department
• His mentors and the impact they made to Zeeshan
• How can we influence stakeholders of the value treasury adds to the success of the company
• What he thinks about certifications and do they make a difference to him when hiring?

At age 29, Jawad Ahsan defined his North Star: he wanted to move up to the C-suite. A year later, he became a divisional CFO at GE Healthcare, and was soon promoted to be a GE executive. By age 34, he was the CFO of a private-equity backed SaaS company, and by age 37, became the CFO of a publicly traded company, Axon. As CFO, Jawad is responsible for leading the company's global finance, corporate strategy, legal and IT organizations, as well as Axon's consumer-facing business. During his tenure, Axon's market cap has increased from $1 billion to over $6 billion.

In this episode we discuss:

• The keys things Jawad look for in his direct reports when hiring
• How is the role of treasurer changing in the future
• "Surround yourself with quality people that will take you further than you think"
• "Anyone can be a leader but don't assume that you're in a leadership position that you are a leader"
• Hiring people you trust
• Defining your Northstar