Another year has almost run its course, and Treasury & Risk finds itself with another set of Alexander Hamilton Awards to hand out to a group of deserving treasuries. I am especially pleased this year that our Overall Excellence prize goes to a company that has so consistently been among our finalists since I have been editor. Honeywell International Inc. won the top award not only for outstanding work in 2007, but also for its system of teamwork, benchmarking and clearly articulated treasury goals that essentially compels the pursuit of best practices. As Treasury & Risk notes in its write-ups, Honeywell is not about the one sensational project, but much more about a sustained attitude and embedded process that ensures the repeatability of best practices, their institutionalization. Congratulations on a well-deserved win.

But the November issue is also our Women in Finance issue and I can't help but note how many winning treasurers this year are among our AHA finalists–Jennifer Ceran, Jolene Varney and Irene Sudac. There is also a win for Cathie Lesjak's treasury. Obviously as a woman, I take a special delight in their success. But what I find also interesting is the gap that still exists not only in treatment of men and women, but even in the perception of that treatment. In our "Women in Finance" survey this year, you will see a pretty unanimous sense among women that, while the opportunities are there for women in finance, they are not always as plentiful or as lucrative and many involve sacrifices of work-life balance that men do not have to make. Male respondents recognized the possible imbalance–just not as often.