The Russian debt crisis of 1998, the dot-com bubble and then the global financial crash didn’t faze Paul Byrne. In fact, he describes 2008 as a ‘fantastic time’ to be in treasury, with all the challenges it brought alongside the opportunities to rebuild businesses and restructure systems. His survival kit includes a can-do attitude, the ability to think strategically, knowing when to take or leave advice – and a pile of good books to read on the road.
How did you come into treasury and what attracted you to the profession?
After qualifying as an accountant, I quickly realised it wasn’t something that I was particularly interested in doing for the rest of my career. At that time, I was working as a financial controller for Citi and began to gravitate towards the trading floor. I became much more interested in the mechanics of funding the bank and less about debits and credits. I was hooked from that point. I knew I wanted to fund the balance sheet and to manage capital and liquidity, hence the move into treasury.
I have been fortunate to have worked for Citi, SEB, Merrill Lynch (where I was treasurer of their banks throughout the global financial crisis), AIG and PTSB (an Irish bank that failed the European Central Bank [ECB] 2014 stress test, which I got to re-IPO and QBE). These firms gave me the opportunity initially to work on individual transactions, including debt deals, equity raising, balance sheet restructuring, crisis management, deleveraging or M&A, which, over time, became a body of work and experience that has enabled me to continue enjoying what I love to do!
Over time, my roles became more geared towards enterprise level and strategic in nature, enabling me to truly make an impact on the business.
Sign up for free to read the full article
Register Login with LinkedInAlready have an account?
Login
Download our Free Treasury App for mobile and tablet to read articles – no log in required.
Download Version Download Version