Each of our award-winning organizations made substantial upgrades to treasury processes, while also laying the groundwork for ongoing improvements to support the company into the future:

Gold Award: As ChildFund International shifted to remote work for staff around the world, Parandeh's treasury team noticed a concerning trend: Some treasury and finance employees ended up working from coffee shops, hotels, and public Wi-Fi hotspots. Treasury headed up an organization-wide effort to improve cybersecurity, including starting an internal cyber incident response team (CIRT). In doing so, the treasury team established themselves as the NGO's go-to office for risk management decision-making.
Silver Award: When Exelon Corporation and Constellation Energy Corporation separated into two Fortune 200 companies, their newly reformed treasury groups needed to overhaul key systems and processes. The teams embraced the period of transition that their company was in, undertaking a complete review of treasury operations. They developed a vision of treasury as a value driver for, and partner to, the newly separated businesses. Subsequent technology and process implementations helped both companies' treasury teams reach that goal.
Bronze Award: Starwood Capital Group is a leading private investment firm with a focus on real estate. One key process for the Starwood treasury team is opening new bank accounts, because the organization frequently adds new properties, and a single property might require several signers on its accounts. Treasury wanted to accelerate the pace of business by shrinking bank onboarding, but legacy tools offered by the firm's transaction banks did not support this goal. Starwood addressed this challenge by turning to virtual accounts—which have both accelerated deal closes and improved liquidity management.

These innovative and transformational initiatives positioned the treasury team in each of these organizations to better support its company's strategic objectives. As Gaina Dorvil, assistant treasurer for Starwood Capital, explains the big-picture benefits of her project: "Utilizing a virtual account structure makes us more of a real-time treasury and makes Starwood Capital Group a more agile business."

Instant Insights /

2023 Alexander Hamilton Awards: Treasury Transformation

Related Stories

Recommended For You