Interview | 4 questions for Chris van Dijl, Seasoned Treasury Professional & Trainer

INTERVIEW

1. What initially drew you to a career in treasury, and how has your passion for the field evolved over the years?

I think like most working in treasury, I stumbled upon a career in treasury rather than explicitly choosing that direction. After finishing university, I got an opportunity to work as a treasury analyst for a publicly listed company and never looked back. One of the advantages I had was that my first boss involved me a lot in every aspect of treasury, let me sit in on meetings with banks and so on.
What got me hooked on treasury was how much treasury in involved with the business, working together with business operations to increase performance. Also working in treasury for a multi-national organisation means there is a lot of international exposure, which is where my language skills came in very useful.

2. Can you provide an overview of your career journey in treasury, highlighting key milestones and experiences that have shaped your path?

My first treasury role was for a company that was in crisis (near bankruptcy and with the share price dropping 50% per week). As a Treasury Analyst I was responsible for cash flow forecasting, and therefore I was immediately the center of attention for senior management. The CFO came by my desk almost on a daily basis to ask a question, rather than going to the Treasurer.

As I climbed up the treasury ladder from Treasury Analyst to Group Treasurer, most roles that I have had were involved in treasury transformations – setting up new treasury departments, relocating treasury departments across borders and selecting and implementing new treasury technologies.

During my career I have also gained valuable experiences by working in variety of different industries – from listed multinationals to a FinTech start-up and financial institutions. This combined with having worked in treasury in 4 different countries and having lived in 5 countries (Netherlands, United Kingdom, U.S.A., U.A.E. and Colombia) have provided me with a unique perspective on international treasury, which enables me to provide something extra to my consultancy clients and well as numerous real-life examples and anecdotes during my training sessions.

3. Can you share a memorable success story or achievement in your career that you are particularly proud of?

While I was the Group Treasurer of the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group in 2011, we set up a new treasury function from scratch. This included the implementation of a treasury management system, and an In-House Bank. The in-house bank was the first in-house bank for a non-government related entity in the Middle East. Another feature of the new structure was the use of a Payment-on-Behalf-of (POBO) solution whereby the in-house bank paid invoices on behalf on the subsidiaries. In the middle east this was revolutionary at the time. Furthermore, we centralized all trade finance / letter of credit activities to group treasury, an activity that was previously handled by the various commercial and sales departments in the entities. For this transformation the treasury team at Easa Saleh Al Gurg received the ‘Best Treasury Team – 2011’ from The Association of Corporate Treasurers.

4. Looking ahead, what do you see as the most significant challenges and opportunities for treasurers in the coming years, and how are you preparing for them?

The most important aspect in life and in treasury is that change is constant. Quite a few treasury functions have been established for several years now with a treasury management solution and an ERP in place that are a few years old.

Technology has changed significantly over the last few years. Not just the regarding the current buzz words of artificial intelligence and robotic automation, but also the use of dashboards and solutions with very smooth user interfaces. Until a few years ago system solid integrations remained an issue leading to many corporates opting for an all-in-one ERP solution, with perhaps a single interface to a treasury system. With the arrival of XML and API interfaces, many corporates are now contemplating for best-of-breed solutions, for example a state of the art cash forecasting solution, a different bank connectivity solution and separate working capital solution, on top of their ERP.

It is the opportunity and the challenge for treasurers to find internal funding to review their current treasury organisation and treasury tech landscape and take it to the next level.

Through Cugavadi, I am assisting treasurers to design their optimum future treasury environment, by providing them guidance based on my extensive international experience, and to find the right solutions to implement and make their treasury function ready for now and for the future.