My Life in Treasury: José Carlos Cuevas de Miguel, GE Capital

José Carlos Cuevas de Miguel, Senior Treasury Staff Manager, GE Capital

In addition to his successful career in corporate treasury, José Carlos Cuevas is also well known in his role as Vice President of the Spanish Finance Association (ASSET) and Member of the Board at the European Finance Association (EACT), sharing good practices and representing corporate treasurers’ interests with regulators in both Spain and Brussels.

How did you come into treasury and what attracted you to the profession?

I originally started my career working for the audit firm Coopers & Lybrand (that has since evolved into PwC). In Spain, we don’t have a well-established treasury métier in the way that countries such as the UK and France do, so treasurers typically come from an audit or accounting background, or in the case of smaller companies, the finance director will fulfill this role. This also reflects my career: following roles in accounting and tax for Banque PSA, I moved into treasury in 2001 as the bank’s head of treasury and accounting for Spain and Portugal before ultimately pursuing a career in corporate treasury.

How did your career progress through to the role that you hold today?

In 2006, I moved from the bank to become treasury director for Alstom in Spain and Portugal, which included acting as deputy finance director, managing acquisitions and implementing a new treasury management system. As Spain was one of Alstom’s largest markets, this was an exciting opportunity, and allowed me to explore a wide range of issues and take on a variety of ancillary roles, such as ethics and compliance ambassador.

In 2010, I was asked to conduct a treasury organisation review, which recommended implementing a regional treasury structure, approved by the CFO in 2011. Following this approval, I became Regional Treasurer for Europe, with 25 direct reports in 10 countries, covering 30 countries and around 230 legal entities. This included acting as finance director for eight  countries and a business partner in bidding and project control. During the five years I spent in this role, we undertook a wide range of projects, including a cash pool across 14 countries, projects in FX risk management and hedge accounting, and negotiating our bank and insurance company relationships across the region, covering more than 20 banks and about 1,500 bank accounts. I also acted as SEPA project leader and supported the creation of the finance shared service centre.

Following GE’s acquisition of Alstom in 2015, I had the opportunity to stay with the far smaller Alstom business or move to GE. GE is a very different business to Alstom, with a far less mature European heritage. I was tasked by GE to run the global integration of Alstom energy business into GE, covering 30 countries. Earlier this year, I became part of the working group to shape a new industrial finance function at GE Europe as part of a GE Capital team. 

As well as pursuing my career in industry, I joined the national treasury and finance association in Spain, ASSET, and became the EACT representative for ASSET, representing corporations either headquartered or operating in Spain, a position I have fulfilled since 2002. There is an interesting cultural difference between treasurers in Spain and countries such as Italy, where treasurers are far more engaged in driving the treasury agenda. Treasurers in Spain are far less likely to be proactive in representing the profession on the front line with regulators and industry bodies.

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How have demands and needs in terms of treasury changed over the course of your career, and what particular skills does it now require?

In the past, there was a distinction in many corporations between the treasurer, who managed day-to-day treasury administration, and the CFO/finance director, who was responsible for decision-making. This has changed in recent years, particularly since the global financial crisis, and treasurers have become far more involved in understanding and managing financial flows and risks across the group. As a result, the treasury function has become more strategic and less operational in nature, and more actively involved in decision-making.

As companies evolve their business, treasurers’ priorities also change, so treasurers need to stay close to business units and understand the projects and business portfolio that they manage.

What qualities do you look for when you are recruiting for your department?

One of the key attributes we look for is adaptability, as people need to be able to undertake different roles and projects in treasury and respond to changing conditions. The ability to speak more than one language is very helpful, and accounting knowledge is also important. Increasingly, treasury is becoming more focused on technology, so IT knowledge in areas such as financial technology, XML, SWIFT, ERPs etc. is becoming increasingly valuable.

How important do you think a formal treasury education is, as opposed to (or as well as) more general finance or accountancy qualifications?

This really depends on the country: in the UK, for example, where established treasury qualifications exist, these are more important than in a country such as Spain where there are no such qualifications. This is something we have been looking at in conjunction with business schools, but it is still work in progress.

Based on your career so far, what would your advice be to finance professionals who are perhaps in their first treasury role?

Having worked in both a bank and a corporate treasury environment, it is difficult to express quite how different they are, and in reality, skills acquired working in one or the other are only partly transferable. Consequently, I think treasury and finance professionals need to decide in which sector they want to work, and build their knowledge base accordingly.

However, in every sector, whether industrial, financial or otherwise, it is essential when first starting a new role to understand the company in detail: how is it structured; what are the internal/external flows; how and why do these occur, and who is responsible for each type of flow.

How do you spend your leisure time?

I’ve been practising fencing since I was very young, and I still try and block out a few hours each week to practise. It’s a fantastic way of combatting stress, highly technical and strategic, and a valuable way of teaching people how to win and lose fairly.

What book have you read recently or what film have you seen recently that you would recommend, and why?

One book I’d particular recommend is The Real-Life MBA: Your No-BS Guide to Winning the Game, Building a Team, and Growing Your Career by Jack & Suzy Welch, which was published last year. It’s difficult to find time to read when there are so many papers and proposals to read for work, but I found the insights in this book particularly helpful in areas such as improving communication.