For more than 20 years, the Alexander Hamilton Awards from Treasury & Risk have recognized corporate treasury, finance, and risk management teams that have pursued innovation—and succeeded wildly in that pursuit. Speaking with the professionals who drove the award-winning initiatives is always an honor and a learning experience.

This year's winners in the Treasury Transformation category truly transformed their treasury functions.

• Bronze Award: OpenText rationalized its complex global banking structure, setting up three cash pools and positioning the business for easier integration of future acquisitions.
• Silver Award: Avery Dennison rebuilt its European treasury function, centralizing bank account management, intercompany lending, and FX risk management.
• Gold Award: Herc Rentals, in its divestiture from Hertz, spun up a fully functional treasury group to support a billion-dollar company in just six months.

These three initiatives have two key characteristics in common: a drive to streamline processes, and an emphasis on building cross-functional collaboration throughout the company. “For a project like ours, you need buy-in not just from those inside treasury, but externally as well,” says Mustally Hussain, vice president and treasurer of Herc Rentals. “Getting that buy-in requires you to understand what people's needs are. Become a manager of their needs, and add value by connecting with them cross-functionally across the value chain. If you can do that, then treasury becomes important. If you don't do that, treasury becomes marginalized and just becomes a back-office operation.”