Senior Executive

Banking Capital Markets Senior Executive

March 16, 2021

No Sale: Convertibles at Great Prices Fail to Impress IG Corporates

Companies rated investment grade expressed reluctance to issue convertible bonds, despite favorable conditions. It can be a nonstarter to raise the topic of convertible bonds with treasurers at investment-grade companies that can already issue debt with very low interest rates and don’t want their stock diluted when investors convert bonds to equity. But many NeuGroup members whose companies have high credit ratings, including some at a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Capital Markets, say all their banks have pitched convertibles.…

Justin Jones

ESG Senior Executive

August 6, 2020

Treasury’s Key Role as Corporates Support Black Communities

Treasurers weigh investments, deposits and transactions that will benefit Black communities.Treasury teams within the NeuGroup Network are playing a key role at companies that are stepping up efforts to support Black communities and Black-owned financial institutions. NeuGroup members discussed their initiatives and options at a recent Virtual Interactive Session (VIS) that followed a webinar in which Netflix detailed its commitment to allocate 2% of cash holdings—initially up to $100 million—into financial institutions and organizations that directly support Black communities in the US.Director of…

June 23, 2020

Juneteenth and Beyond: NeuGroup Member Companies Take Action on Racial Justice

Treasurers at major retailers discuss what’s been done so far and what lies ahead. Calls for major societal change in the wake of the killing of George Floyd have sparked many corporations, including NeuGroup member companies, to take a range of actions in support of change and racial justice. For some, those actions included the observation of Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the US. At a NeuGroup virtual meeting for retailers last Friday on changing regulation and business norms…

COVID-19 Senior Executive Treasury Management

April 9, 2020

Treasurers Rise to the Challenge of Managing Teams Remotely

One treasurer shares how he keeps staff united and upbeat—and offers his take on leadership during a crisis.The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many treasurers to confront the challenges of managing finance teams remotely. At a recent NeuGroup virtual meeting of mega-cap companies, one treasurer shared his approach to keeping his team cohesive, as well as an observation about how people perform during a crisis. Together apart. To build a sense of togetherness and maintain unity when everyone is in a…

COVID-19 Functional Risk Management Senior Executive

April 2, 2020

Closing a Quarter for SOX Can be Difficult in New, Remote World

An internal auditor describes what his company has done to successfully close a quarter when some physical tasks can’t be done. Part of Sarbanes-Oxley, the internal controls act released in 2002, requires a corporate’s chief executive and financial officers to certify financial and other information contained in the issuer’s quarterly and annual reports. But what happens in a crisis? What if some of that info requires someone in place to record inventory or in-person meetings when employee movement is heavily…

Ted Howard

March 26, 2020

DIY: Forming Mentoring Circles That Lead to Sponsorship

More takeaways from the Women in NeuGroup meeting featuring three senior executives at one company. The Women in NeuGroup (WiNG) virtual meeting held last week highlighted the use of mentoring circles as a building block for sponsorship—where someone senior to you in the company advocates for your advancement. Our first story described how the process works at one major American multinational, as described by three senior executives. Below are more takeaways from the meeting as distilled by Anne Friberg, senior…

March 19, 2020

Using Mentoring Circles to Cultivate Organic Sponsorship for Women

Mentoring circles can help women find sponsors who can advocate for their career advancement. Three women who are senior finance executives at a major multinational corporation described how their company organically builds sponsorship using so-called mentoring circles to support the development needs of high-potential talent. The three spoke this week at a Women in NeuGroup virtual meeting. One of the women described mentoring circles as groups of 10 to 20 people led by more senior employees to discuss topics of…

March 10, 2020

Org Charts and Beyond: How Leaders Help Prepare Teams for Change

Many treasurers want to give team members the skills to move to other areas or companies. NeuGroup members at a recent Treasurers’ Group of Thirty meeting delved into the nuances of treasury department organizational structures and how they meet specific company needs. Participants enjoyed seeing on a screen exactly how other treasury teams have been put together and why. And they had a laugh when one person didn’t recognize his own org chart. But many members clearly feel the weight…

February 20, 2020

Mike Likes It, but Would Your Team Vote for an Open-Office Plan?

Open-office plans like the one Mike Bloomberg adopted at City Hall have fans and skeptics. Where do you stand (sit)? Presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg in December tweeted the picture above of the “bullpen” office he had as New York City mayor and wrote, “I’ll turn the East Room into an open-office plan, where I’ll sit with our team.” No one can say if that will ever happen, of course. But the subject of open-office plans definitely sparked interest at a…