In a business's early days, optimizing treasury capabilities may take a backseat to more pressing organizational needs. Sometimes this means that, down the line, a large and complex company realizes it is operating much less efficiently than it could be. And in many cases, the adoption of the right technologies can bring efficiencies in treasury that were previously lacking. Such is the case for all three of this year's Alexander Hamilton Award winners in the category of Technology Excellence.

Join this Treasury & Risk webcast where we explore how these companies leveraged technology to centralize key treasury tasks, dramatically improving the treasury group's efficiency, reducing risk to the organization, and highlighting the value that treasury brings to the company.

The winners are:

● Casey's General Stores. Based in Ankeny, Iowa, Casey's grew to have more than 2,300 bank accounts across 890 different bank branches before building an internal treasury team. The convenience store chain with over $10 billion in annual revenue centralized cash management, deploying smart safe and other technologies to support the transition. Casey's eliminated approximately $3 million in cash shrinkage and enabled staff nationwide to redirect 1.7 million hours per year away from store-level treasury activities and toward more value-added tasks.

● Heidrick & Struggles. The global executive search firm also centralized key treasury functions in order to dramatically improve efficiency. In its case, the challenging tasks revolved around cash flow forecasting. The firm built a custom module for its ERP system called the Heidrick Cashflow Forecast Module, which pulls together data from A/P, A/R, treasury journals, and the corporate G/L, then analyzes that data with business logic designed to account for seasonality, FX, bad debt, and other factors. The resulting forecasts are much easier to produce and less challenging to maintain than with the legacy process. They also significantly reduce the risk of forecasting errors. Meanwhile, Heidrick & Struggles has gained better visibility into data and processes, supporting better decision-making companywide.

● Hilton. The hotel chain operates 7,300 properties in 123 countries and territories. For two decades, the Hilton treasury team used spreadsheets and emailed documents back and forth to manage the myriad bank accounts required to run this widely dispersed business. When Hilton implemented a bank account management system, the treasury team was able to centralize bank account information for business units around the world, reducing information risk and creating a clear audit trail that reduces organizational risk as well.

Register Now

Can't attend? Register here for an on-demand recording after the webcast.

Speakers: 

Yogesh Tupe | VP & Treasurer | Heidrick & Struggles

Yogesh Tupe is the vice president and global treasurer of Heidrick & Struggles, based in the firm's San Francisco office.  He has significant experience in debt, foreign exchange, investments, cash management, insurance, surety, bank guarantees, pension plan, stock buybacks, controls, and treasury systems.  Prior to joining the firm in 2021, he worked at Oracle, Levi Strauss & Co, and Intel.

Ben Lewenczuk | Assistant Treasurer | Casey's General Stores

Ben Lewenczuk has been with Casey's General Stores for approximately eight years; during the past three years, he has served as the company's assistant treasurer. Prior to working in treasury, he spent about 5 years as the business unit controller for construction, maintenance, and facilities. Prior to Casey's, he worked in various finance roles within the aerospace and defense industry.

Jacqui Drew | Global Head of Sales and Account Management | ION Treasury

Jacqui Drew currently serves as the Global Head of Sales and Account Management at ION Treasury. With an extensive background in financial services, Jacqui leads a dynamic team responsible for driving new business sales and managing existing accounts for over 1,200 customers. In her role, Jacqui oversees the entire sales process, from pre-sales to post-sales account management, working closely with cross-functional teams such as Customer Support and Professional Services to ensure exceptional client satisfaction. Jacqui also chairs ION's Hedge Accounting Technical Taskforce team, focusing on important topics such as IFRS 9, ASC815, IBOR replacement, and negative interest rates.

Jon Beckham | IT Controller | Casey's General Stores

Jon Beckham has worked for Casey's General Stores for 7 years. He currently serves as the IT controller. Prior to this role, Beckham held roles in financial project implementations and audit.

Jee Lee | Senior Director, Global Treasury Management Systems | Hilton

Jee Lee is a senior director of treasury systems who joined Hilton in 2012. She is currently responsible for managing the system's infrastructure and connectivity for market data and financial institutions. She oversees global banking administration as well as various projects and initiatives of the treasury operations team in North America, EMEA, and APAC.

Dana Lee | Senior Director, Regional Treasury Americas | Hilton

Dana Lee is an experienced treasury professional with 20 years of progressive experience. She is currently responsible for treasury operations and cash management in the Americas region for Hilton. She works closely with cross-functional teams to achieve financial objectives and oversees the organization's financial institution relationships, banking administration, financial compliance, and strategic process improvement.