Every year, the Alexander Hamilton Awards recognize people and organizations that are pioneering best practices in corporate treasury, finance, and risk management. 2015 is no exception.

Now in their 20th year, the Alexander Hamilton Awards will recognize achievement in seven categories:

• Working capital management
• Liquidity management
• Financial risk management
• Operational risk management & insurance
• Technology excellence
• Treasury transformation
• Best practices in restricted/emerging markets

The 2014 Alexander Hamilton Awards recognized the innovators behind nine outstanding projects, ranging from one of the first cross-border cash pooling programs that moves RMB out of mainland China, to establishment of systems and processes to manage corporate bank accounts and cash flows in Iraq; and from developing sophisticated analyses of currency risk to inform a large FX hedging program, to stepping out of the finance silo and undertaking holistic management of a wide range of operational risks in a large healthcare organization.

In 2014, Treasury & Risk also recognized Microsoft as our Alexander Hamilton Overall Excellence Award winning company, for showing a spirit of innovation and a standard of best practices throughout its treasury and finance function. Whether our judges present an Overall Excellence Award again in 2015 will depend on whether they feel such an award is deserved based on the various entries received in the contest's seven categories.