Published: August 01, 2014
This month, Helen Sanders, Editor talks to Michal Kawski, whose career has spanned both consultancy and corporate treasury. Although most of his early career was based in Central & Eastern Europe, Michal is now based in London.
Treasurers often enter the profession ‘accidentally’ as part of their finance career. In contrast, it was my ambition to become a treasurer while I was still at university. A society that I belonged to at university was helpful in highlighting potential career routes and establishing external relationships with banks and corporations, so I initially got to know treasury through these contacts.
My original interest was in derivative instruments, as I appreciated the combination of innovation and logic, and the concept was relatively new in Poland. I soon realised that hedging was only part of the treasury picture, and I was further attracted to the breadth of a treasurer’s responsibilities across liquidity, risk, investment and financing.
Career opportunities in treasury were relatively limited when I started my professional life. Whilst still at university, I worked for a publisher of a quarterly derivatives magazine Rynek Terminowy based in Krakow. This was a very helpful step in developing market contacts and expanding my knowledge of the industry. Once I had graduated, I realised the importance of gaining a wide breadth of experience so I joined Arthur Andersen that at that time had an excellent treasury practice in Poland. I started in audit but then moved into the derivatives team, whilst continuing to develop a strong grounding in accounting. I later joined a new derivatives and capital markets team at Deloitte in Warsaw where I spent four and a half years. As a new business, this was a great opportunity to gain exposure to a wide variety of treasury-related topics, mostly with corporations (particularly commodity companies) as well as some financial institutions. I need to stress that I was lucky to have worked with extremely talented individuals like Zbyszek Szczerbetka, Adam Kolaczyk (still partners in central European practice) and the rest of the team. They always were a great inspiration for me and helped to shape up my career.
Having spent my career so far in consultancy, I decided I wanted to gain some direct exposure to the corporate world. I had worked with more than 50 clients by this time across Central and Eastern Europe, and wanted to put what I’d learnt into practice. The timing of this decision was very fortunate as Gazprom Marketing & Trading was looking like a company with a great potential in 2006 and I decided to join the team there. At that time, the business was still very young and ambitious for growth. During the first year, we all had to be involved in every aspect of Gazprom Marketing & Trading’s finance function but shortly afterwards, we structured the treasury business into formal functions with specific roles and responsibilities and segregation of duties. In 2008, at the time of the global financial crisis, I was formally appointed as treasurer, although this was the job I had been doing previously. Like many other treasuries, the crisis was a rollercoaster for us, but in reality it was the best year we’d ever had, both in P&L terms and in the energy and dynamism we saw in the business. We had a clear vision of a global treasury function and we recognised that the crisis was an opportunity to realise this vision that we were unlikely to see again. Therefore, we centralised and optimised many of our cash and treasury management activities in a very short period of time, and we continue to focus on developing bank relationships, securing competitive access to financing and improving our FX and investment approach.
When I started my career, treasury was a very new profession in Poland and only the largest companies had a defined treasury function. Of these, many were less developed than comparable businesses in UK or US, while others were world-class. I have gained a great deal of experience and knowledge by developing and maintaining my contacts with many of these businesses, not only while I was working in Poland but also since moving to London. In the early years, the growth of treasury was prompted in part by the need to develop the skills to understand and manage the increasing variety of derivative products that were offered by the banks.[[[PAGE]]]
Since the crisis, the value that treasurers offer has become more widely recognised, and the skills that they need to respond to changing market conditions have evolved, not only in hedging risk but across a wide variety of activities. For example, lack of liquidity was the breaking point for many businesses, and companies can no longer rely on bank financing as a default. Instead, they need experienced treasurers to develop both bank and non-bank relationships and secure access to financing.
Even so, treasury remains a young profession, particularly in regions where the financial markets are less mature. Even in countries where treasury is more defined and widely recognised, it remains difficult for treasury professionals to plot a distinct career path. For example, it is often the financial controller rather than the treasurer that is selected as CFO, despite the strategic finance skills that treasurers offer. While this seems likely to change in the future, it often takes considerable effort for treasurers to identify the next career move.
Building the treasury team at Gazprom Marketing & Trading, effectively from scratch, has been an immensely rewarding experience. I am very proud of the skill, motivation and commitment shown by the people whom I have employed over the past few years, and I have a great deal of respect for what they have achieved.
I think the key issue is to make sure that people will fit into the team culture. We have a highly motivated team with a shared culture that in part accounts for our success. Clearly, skills are important but as every treasury is different, there are likely to be skill gaps. In my experience, people with the right attitude and a willingness to learn will quickly close any of these gaps, whereas someone with a wide range of skills, but a less flexible attitude, would find it more difficult to fit into the team.
A formal treasury education, such as the ACT’s AMCT qualification, is a valuable means for treasury professionals developing their career to standardise their skill set and to achieve the breadth of knowledge required by employers. In addition, all treasurers have a responsibility to keep their skills current and relevant. Gazprom Marketing & Trading’s treasury department was recently awarded CPD (continuous professional development) accreditation by the ACT, as an illustration of our commitment to supporting our team with high-quality training and development.
I would recommend that finance professionals starting out in their treasury career start pursuing specialist treasury qualifications early, which is the experience of most of the Gazprom Marketing & Trading treasury team. Look at what qualifications are available and consider which are most relevant to the career path you are looking to follow. In addition to learning academic theory, developing as wide a range of practical skills as possible is also important.
There are so many places I’d love to explore, particularly in Latin America and South East Asia. Generally when we go on holiday, we travel without a fixed agenda, and find the experience far more rewarding than package holidays or five star hotels.
When we moved to our offices in Central London around three years ago, I got myself a Kindle which has been absolutely fantastic. As a result, I have read lots of books whilst commuting daily from Surrey. I recently read Michael Lewis’ new book Flash Boys which explores the world of high frequency trading, which is a compelling read, particularly for those working in the finance profession. Another book I keep going back to is David Kynaston’s City of London: A History, a mammoth book originally published in four volumes between 1994 – 2001. Unlike any other book, I can keep dipping into it and find it endlessly fascinating. When it comes to Polish literature I recently finished a book called Twierdza by Igor Janke, about the Solidarnosc Walczaca movement in the 1980s. I would not be surprised if it becomes a movie at some point. I am sure that the English translation will be available soon.
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