Every year, the Alexander Hamilton Awards recognize people andorganizations that are pioneering best practices in corporatetreasury, finance, and risk management. 2015 is no exception.

Nowin their 20th year, the Alexander Hamilton Awards will recognizeachievement in seven categories:

• Working capital management
• Liquidity management
• Financial risk management
• Operational risk management & insurance
• Technology excellence
• Treasury transformation
• Best practices in restricted/emerging markets

The 2014Alexander Hamilton Awards recognized the innovators behind nineoutstanding projects, ranging from one of the first cross-border cash pooling programs that moves RMB out of mainlandChina, to establishment of systems and processes to manage corporate bank accounts and cashflows in Iraq; and from developing sophisticated analyses of currency risk to inform a large FXhedging program, to stepping out of the finance silo andundertaking holistic management of a wide range of operationalrisks in a large healthcare organization.

In 2014, Treasury & Risk also recognized Microsoft as our Alexander Hamilton Overall ExcellenceAward winning company, for showing a spirit of innovation and astandard of best practices throughout its treasury and financefunction. Whether our judges present an Overall Excellence Awardagain in 2015 will depend on whether they feel such an award isdeserved based on the various entries received in the contest'sseven categories.