Interview I Treasury Leadership Across Borders: An Interview with Danilo Gonzalez

INTERVIEW

You began your career in banking and derivatives before moving into corporate treasury. Looking back, what key experiences shaped your approach to treasury leadership and risk management?

When I started in banking, I began directly in treasury, but banking treasury is quite different from corporate treasury. Still, it gave me a lot of exposure early on. I was young and did not really know what to expect, but I have always been a numbers person, so I naturally enjoyed working with derivatives and treasury products.

What shaped me the most was the structure and strict rules inside a bank. Things are defined very clearly, which means it is hard to break something. You can make mistakes, learn, and nothing collapses. On the other hand, you deal with hundreds of millions daily, so you get comfortable making decisions at that scale. Later, when you move to a corporate environment, you see that even a few million can cause stress. That early exposure really helped me develop confidence.

Another thing I still carry with me is observing how my former manager operated. Even today I sometimes reflect on how he would handle a situation. So that combination of structure, exposure, and role models helped shape my leadership and risk mindset.

Having lived and worked in five countries and managed treasury operations across Europe and Africa, what are the most critical skills or strategies for effectively operating in a multicultural and multi-currency environment?

The first thing to understand is that we work in a human business. Behind every company, there are people, and people do not operate the same way everywhere. One of my key learnings was that you cannot treat Africa the same way you treat Europe. You need two different hats, and you need to know what to expect in each place.

Countries have different mindsets, regulations, and speeds of working. You cannot expect the same reaction time or way of thinking everywhere just because you are used to Europe. That is why I encourage my colleagues to get familiar not only with local regulations but also with the culture and the drivers of each country.

There is no one-size-fits-all. Governance needs adaptation, flexibility, and local applicability. And that is why we have dedicated people per country. If you have only a global view, you will never go into the right level of detail for each local reality.

“The first thing to understand is that we work in a human business. Behind every company there are people, and people do not operate the same way everywhere.”

You recently led the centralization of local treasuries into a regional competence center in Lisbon. What were the main challenges in harmonizing processes across more than 50 subsidiaries, and how did you overcome stakeholder resistance?

What helped us was that the planning was done very carefully. The idea came from someone who had already led similar projects, so we knew that resistance would come. We needed strong people with resilience, because you face resistance from day one.

A common reaction was: “Why change it? Nothing is broken.” So we had to explain the reasoning behind the centralization and make clear that we also believe in the concept, not just execute a mandate from the board.

The first step was to run assessment sessions with the key stakeholders. We listened to concerns, explained our intention, and showed the benefits. It was not about imposing a rule. It was about getting people on board.

After that, we evaluated what should really change. We do not centralize for the sake of centralization. We look at the pros and cons and choose what is best for the whole group, not for a single country.

Then comes execution. You need people with the right skills, people who know the full setup, who can train others, and who can show that the arguments we presented were valid. Trust does not come in one day. You have to prove it through competence and results.

And for harmonization, we also had to accept that not everything can be standardized. Local regulations and working styles make certain processes country-specific. So we standardized what made sense and left the rest as local. Otherwise, you create unnecessary pressure and frustration.

You have participated in treasury podcasts and actively share your knowledge with the community. How do you approach mentoring and developing treasury expertise within your team, especially during times of organizational change?

Mentoring is a very powerful technique to connect people with leaders and to expand internal networks. I usually ask my team members if they are interested in having a mentor. Some people say yes, others say they do not have time or do not feel the need at that moment. It depends on where they are in their career.

When someone is interested, it is my role to know them well. I try to understand their weaknesses, strengths and ambitions. Then I look in the leadership environment for someone who could be a good fit. Sometimes it also happens the other way around. During internal conferences or meetings, someone might say they really like how a certain person speaks and that this person would be a great mentor. In that case they can approach the person directly.

From my experience, good mentors are usually happy to take mentees. It is a two-way street. The mentee learns from the mentor, and the mentor also learns from the mentee.

For developing treasury expertise, we sometimes do this kind of analysis that is similar to a classic strengths and weaknesses review. We discuss what people want to work on, what they want to improve and in which direction they want to grow. It can be any area, for example FX, cash management or trade finance.

We start with internal learning possibilities. We have a lot of internal training in different areas of finance. In the past we also did treasury certifications. For more senior people, the training is more specific, depending on the path they want to follow. It is also important that people speak up and say I want to go in this direction or I want to improve that skill. It should not only be top-down, but also bottom-up.

With treasury operations developing fast, which trends or innovations do you believe will have the greatest impact on treasury practices over the next five years, and how should organizations prepare?

I can share what I would like to see, although I am not sure it will happen exactly as I imagine. For me, the main topic is automation, specifically the connection between treasury and accounting.

We often say treasury is about cash flows and accounting is about accurate financial statements, but in reality, both are connected. If I take the example of FX management and derivatives, treasury does its part and accounting does its part, often without fully aligning the processes.

There is a lot of information coming from systems that is not handled in a truly integrated way. In my view, this is because very few people know the entire end-to-end process. If you are in treasury, you focus on the treasury part. If you are in accounting, you focus on the accounting part. For a real solution, you need someone who understands both worlds and who knows all the steps from the ERP, to the treasury management system, to the final posting in accounting.

My dream scenario is to have a real end-to-end process, where data flows from the ERP into treasury systems and then into the financial statements in an automated and consistent way. One process, fully connected and automated. That would avoid a lot of manual work, reduce errors and improve transparency.

To get there, you need knowledge, time and investment. Normally, when we build something, we build a treasury tool and think mainly about treasury. We do not always consider the impact on accounting. The same can happen in the opposite direction. It is not the first time that a solution in one area creates problems in the other.

“Treasury as a function is quite mature, but in terms of full automation with accounting we still have a long way to go. If we manage to bridge that gap, I believe the impact on treasury practice will be very significant.“