gtnews Commends 2011 Global Corporate Treasury Awards Winners

21 Sept 2011 

On 20 September 2011, over 120 guests joined gtnews at the prestigious One King West Hotel in Toronto to recognise the great and the good in corporate treasury.

The second annual Global Corporate Treasury Awards, sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA Merrill), are dedicated to those treasurers that have proven their contribution to the success of their corporate's business. The winners are an outstanding cross-section of all that’s best in treasury. Paul Simpson, head of global transaction services, BofA Merrill, opened the ceremony by welcoming everyone to the event and congratulating all that had submitted an entry for the awards.

More than 60 corporate treasury departments from across the world entered the awards, including two new categories - Trade Finance and Green Treasury.

Figure 1: gtnews 2011 Global Corporate Treasury Awards Winners

Winners (from left to right): Conor Leydon, Managing Director, Omnicom; Ed Scott, Corporate Treasurer, Caterpillar; Richard Moore, Manager, Commodity and Supplier Risk, Caterpillar; Hany Naguib, Corporate Sales Executive - Canada, BofA Merrill; Jean Furter, Vice President Treasurer, Brocade; Svend Mejdal, Director, TMT Client Sales Management, Citi (on behalf of Belden); and Deirdre Stokes, Manager, Corporate Treasury, Kellogg.

The winners and highly commended in each category are:

Treasury Technology Implementation Project of the Year

Winner: Omnicom Group - Global Cash Control System

The development of the Global Cash Control System (GCCS) has been a ‘game changer’ for Omnicom. The GCCS has brought the company’s cash and bank account management the best practice level of highly centralised companies. The workflow processes enabled this in a systematic and rapid manner that would have been impossible otherwise in such a large and decentralised group.

Highly commended:

• Dassault Systèmes - Going Global with SwiftNet and 3SKey.
• Honeywell - Leveraging the MyTreasury MMF Trading Platform.

 

Cash Management Project of the Year

Winner: Belden - Effectively Managing Global Liquidity and Risk

Belden successfully shifted from a regional to a global forecasting platform that is centrally controlled but regionally executed. This has improved its visibility into, and access to, each subsidiary’s excess cash. Its cash reporting accuracy rose from 80% to 99% by the end of 2010, and accuracy has been sustained at a level of 99% or better during 2011.

Highly commended:

• Brady Corporation - Treasury Transformation.
• Sun Chemical - Achieving the ‘Holy Grail’ of Cash Management.

 

Trade Finance Project of the Year

Winner: Caterpillar - Weathering the Financial Storm

Caterpillar achieved several important benefits that went beyond the original scope of the project. This initiative allowed treasury to develop closer working relationships with business units across the enterprise, placing a stronger focus on working capital and cash flow improvement. Equally important, this initiative helped suppliers finance increased production while Caterpillar met its number one cash deployment priority - to fund growth.

Highly commended:

• Nokia Siemens Networks - L/C Confirming in Vietnam.
• Petrovietnam Power - Debt Financing Arrangement.

 

Treasury Team of the Year

Winner: Brocade Transformation Programme in Financial Risk Management

Brocade Treasury team did more than implement a foreign exchange (FX) risk management programme. It initiated and implemented a transformation programme to revamp its FX-related business processes and ownership. The sheer scope and magnitude of the transformation spanned strategically to tactically - re-engineering business programmes and cross-functional processes to major technical treasury and systems improvements.

Highly commended:

• Bharti Airtel - Global Transformation.
• Nalco's Treasury Transformation.

 

Green Treasury Project of the Year

Winner: Kellogg - Going Green is GR-R-REAT!

The ‘Go Green’ efforts by Kellogg’s treasury and accounts receivable (A/R) teams have delivered tremendous results for the company. The reduction - and in some cases complete elimination - of paper has dramatically reduced the organisation’s environmental impact. Beyond protecting the environment, the company has improved processes, reduced costs and gained important efficiencies. Improved visibility and access to documentation saves time and increases productivity.

Highly commended:

• Mn Services - ESG Integration in Broker Evaluation/Selection.

 

Corporate Treasurer of the Year - Readers' Choice Award

Winner: Edward Scott, Corporate Treasurer, Caterpillar

Led by Edward Scott, Caterpillar (Cat) has embarked on a series of cash management initiatives widely considered among the most effective and innovative strategies in the market. One of the key initiatives of Scott’s efforts - a multi-year global supply chain finance (SCF) programme launched in 2010 - has been an unmitigated success in its first year and promises to yield continuous benefits going forward.

Highly commended:

• Peter van Rood, Group Treasurer, AkzoNobel.
• Susan Stalnecker, Vice President - Finance and Treasurer, DuPont.

 

Gold Award

Winner: Caterpillar - Weathering the Financial Storm

This award was given to the corporate treasury that received the highest marks across the other project categories. The judges said this about Caterpillar’s trade finance project:

• The ability to standardise payment terms with over 7,000 suppliers is nothing short of phenomenal! Add to that the positive impact on cash flow and extension of days payable outstanding (DPO) from 44 days to 59, and this project is clearly an excellent one.
• The cultural shift of focus to gain understanding of the importance of cash flow in achieving their strategic initiatives is an admirable achievement.
• As a result of these enterprise-wide efforts, Caterpillar successfully improved its working capital position while improving the cash flow and overall relationships of its suppliers - a true ‘win-win’ situation.

gtnews would like to thank its expert panel of judges, who enthusiastically worked through many best practice case studies.

First published on www.gtnews.com