EuroFinance

With growth accelerating and complexity rising, treasury leaders are stepping beyond traditional roles to build scalable, strategic, and resilient functions that mirror the ambitions of their organisations. At the 11th annual EuroFinance Treasury & Cash Management Summit West Coast, treasury leaders offered a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to build and lead modern treasury teams.

Garima Thakur, Global Treasurer, joined Creative Artists Agency, an entertainment and sports agency, with business activities that span traditional talent representation, media rights, sponsorship sales and commercial endorsements, amongst other services, four years ago, to stand up a global treasury function. “That’s what got me excited about this opportunity to build a treasury team from scratch again. I had the opportunity to this once at TaylorMade Golf Company,” she said. “Which many in this audience will appreciate is somewhat unique to do.”

Starting anew might sound like a luxury, but for Thakur, it has meant continuous activity. “A new function in a high growth company has to constantly balance between developing controls and processes and supporting the rapid business growth.” she said.

In addition is a fast-changing business environment, where priorities can change quickly. “We have to be agile,” she said.

That kind of dynamic environment demands not just technical ability but a certain mindset. “We don’t have the benefit of old models and old processes to enhance,” Thakur said. “So having that intellectual bandwidth, flexibility, and the fail-fast attitude, to take something vague and turn it into a process or a model, is essential.”

At ServiceNow, a cloud-based enterprise software company that helps organisations automate and optimise digital workflows , Tim Muindi, VP, treasurer, faced a different challenge. When he arrived seven years ago, the software company was generating $2 billion in revenue. “I still remember this conversation I had with the former CFO , who said we had line of sight to $5+ billion revenue” Muindi recalled. “The trigger goes off as to, we have to build for scale.”

That goal redefined how Muindi thought about his team. “Whatever got us to $2 billion won’t get us to $5 billion, will not get us to $10 billion, and beyond ” he said. His solution was to build not just a bigger team but a different one . “Some had never done treasury before, others had treasury experience at large companies and banks, but the commonality between them was mind-set.”

For Muindi, the real transformation came from cultivating what he called an “innovative mind-set.” That meant replacing fixed approaches with curiosity, risk-taking, and adaptability. “I can’t build for scale if I don’t have people with the right mind-set,” he said. “We’ve gone through significant treasury transformations, a lot of projects in just a short amount of time.”

The results speak for themselves: today, ServiceNow’s treasury team spans five countries and includes a new treasury technology vertical. “It’s been a highlight across finance ,” Muindi said. “Our CFO  talks about it and the benefits we’re getting from the transformation initiatives completed in the last several years.”

At Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm, Easton Dickson, EVP, global treasurer, takes a similarly strategic view. “What is it that your company is doing and what do you need to do to support the goals of your organisation?” he asked. For Bain, that means building a team of regional and functional specialists with a shared hunger for impact. “We want folks who are intellectually curious, people who are driven for results,” he said. “It’s not just a matter of coming in and saying, ‘Here’s my defined role,’ but how do you drive for results that will benefit the firm?”

For Dickson, treasury is as much about influence as authority. “We don’t do everything ourselves. We need to work with tax, accounting, legal-and we don’t have authority in all cases,” he noted. “It’s how we leverage influence.”

That influence also extends to the highest levels of governance. Dickson meets regularly with Bain’s finance and risk committees to align strategy. “When I act out on behalf of Bain, is with their awareness and support,” he said. “They know why we’re spending the money, what risk we’re keeping for ourselves versus what we are transferring.”

Also read: Taking the pulse of treasury management

Three ingredients for a great treasury

In fast-growing companies where treasury is being redefined, the qualities leaders look for are consistent. Muindi pointed to three: alignment with corporate strategy, curiosity, and courage. “ margin is one of our key metrics which we guide to the street,” he said. “The team’s focus on working capital optimization and operational efficiency has enabled visibility in driving that number. That’s just one area where we’re demonstrating how treasury initiatives directly support the company’s broader financial commitments and growth objectives. We’re thinking strategically about how treasury enables corporate success rather than operating in isolation.”

Thakur added that in a dynamic environment, some professionals struggle to adjust. “There are some folks who may think, ‘That’s not how I operate. I prefer predictability.’ Nothing wrong with that,” she said. “But you may not thrive in a constant, fast-changing environment with that mindset.”

Dickson summed it up with a broad but firm expectation: “Drive for results, a ruthless commitment to delivering. Whether it’s a daily task or implementing a new cash management structure, we’re going to get there by putting in the work.”

AI’s promise and pressure

Looking ahead, all three leaders are weighing the opportunities and risks posed by artificial intelligence. . At ServiceNow, the treasury team is taking a deliberate approach. “We’re still in the early days,” said Muindi. “There’s a rush sometimes to go create this app—and we’ve seen that before. You create something and then, is anybody using it? Nope.”

Instead, his team is focused on getting the data right. “We’re laying that foundation, the data foundation—making sure our data is connected, that we know what it is, have integrity and governance around it,” he said. Use cases are already being developed, from cash positioning to counterparty and FX risk, framed around three types of AI capabilities: predictive, generative and agentic. “We’re prioritizing use cases that will provide us with the highest ROI.”

“There’s a lot of use cases in terms of cash forecasting, liquidity, payments,” Thakur said. “But we’re not quite there yet.” Instead, her team is leveraging AI capabilities offered by their banks and treasury management system providers. “Frankly, it’s a little bit of a low-risk way to do that.”

Still, Thakur is clear about the urgency. “AI is not going to take your job. It’s the person who learns AI,” she said, referencing a quote from the Nvidia CEO. But she’s also wary. “We’ve got to be smart about it and considerate of the risks. I’m sure everyone here is aware of the recent payment scam using deepfake tech to impersonate a CFO.”

Also read: The cost of complacency: why cybersecurity needs urgent action

At Bain, Dickson sees AI as a natural part of a broader tech transformation already underway. “We recently implemented a new ERP system and are about to embark on a TMS project,” he said. “AI is an important part of that.” He’s looking at how automation can eliminate tedious work and free up his team to focus on higher-value tasks. “I want the team to be more excited about what they do — not just plugging in numbers, but getting insights.”

Also read: Roadmaps to results: the real-world strategies for TMS, ERP, and API integration

Bain is already deploying RPAs in certain functions and exploring a wide spectrum of use cases, from basic OCR tasks to more complex capabilities. “We have a playbook,” Dickson said. “We’re looking at what works now, what we can build on, and what can create better outputs for the business.”

Whether building from scratch, scaling at speed, or embedding innovation across a global firm, these treasury leaders are clear-eyed about the future. As their roles expand and the demands increase, they’re staying focused on what matters most: smart people, flexible systems, and a commitment to delivering value, no matter how fast the world changes.