Treasury Snapshot: An interview with Adam Boukadida, Etihad Aviation Group

Adam has recently been promoted to Interim Group Chief Financial Officer - Etihad Aviation Group

What is the major way in which you think your treasury organisation differs from that of your peers?

Our treasury function is extremely diverse and looks after a large part of the broader finance function compared with our peers. Our team was formed in early 2018 as part of an organisation restructuring and was rebranded as Treasury, Tax & Finance. We are a highly skilled team of around 250 employees covering Corporate Treasury, Corporate Finance, Investor Relations, Taxation, Insurance, Credit Control, Financial SSC, Finance Transformation and Compliance. My team comprises more than 40 different nationalities from a variety of backgrounds and industries.

What project takes up the most of your time in treasury today and why?

At the moment I’m the Finance sponsor for our ERP implementation project. This project covers all of group finance and not just treasury. This group-wide project is definitely taking up most of my time due to its global nature and complexity. We have a strong finance team in place working towards our common goal, however this is a multi-year, cross-function programme with many challenges.

If you could change one thing about your treasury process, what would it be and why?

Despite significant investment in technology, we still have too much manual intervention for my liking. I would like to increase automation in order to create additional time for analysis and partnering the business to drive change.

What would you like your main achievement over the next three to five years to be– both as a treasury function and in your personal role?

From a personal perspective I’m targeting to visit 100 countries, which I know is a big challenge (I’m currently on number47). This may take me more than three to five years to achieve.

From a treasury perspective, I’m supporting and promoting formal finance and treasury qualifications within the UAE and working closely with the ACT. I would love to have a team of qualified Emirati finance and treasury professionals within three years.

How do you like to spend your time when you’re not at work?

Among the many benefits of working for an international airline are the travel benefits, which the family and I try to take advantage of as much as possible. Most of my ‘standard’ weekends will be spent on the golf course with my eight-year-old son and also being a chauffeur in-between karate competitions and rugby matches.