Group Director, Treasury (Global Freight Forwarding)

Overview:

This role will lead the design, implementation and management of the cash management structures for the global freight forwarding business in close cooperation with the freight forwarding leadership in the Global Logistics team and regional Freight Forwarding teams.

We intend to build a global top 10 air and ocean freight forwarder within the coming 36 months, through a combination of organic growth and M&A.

Our target operating model is intended to be highly efficient utilizing in-house technology to deliver high quality, consistent service and low transaction costs.

The business will operate from a proprietary TMS, leveraging an in-house global shared service centre, with regionally led business units (100+ branches across the world) driving high-value add sales and customer service activity.

The business is expected to handle more than a million TEU and generate >$2bn revenue globally. This role will be responsible for developing and implementing a treasury strategy with the aim to efficiently fund the working capital requirements of the freight forwarding business and manage cross border funds flow. This strategy will need to ensure that cash is available to meet the working capital requirements of a rapidly growing business operating in multiple geographies while ensuring over-capitalization does not result in a drag on ROCE.

The strategy will also need to consider the management of foreign exchange risk and efficient sources of financing. Furthermore, the role is expected to provide support to the new regional and country level freight forwarding business units in various geographies through training, policies and procedures and best practice treasury governance.

The cash management/pooling is expected to be key to the efficient operation of the freight forwarding business as it allows efficient management of cash across a wide range of branches.

The Director Treasury is critical to the company’s Freight Forwarding business always being able to meet its payment obligations while maintaining an efficient level of capital deployment. The position holder is managing the cash pooling systems and implements and approves the reporting and governance around those systems. He/She closely cooperates with various stakeholders (Global Logistics team / Group Treasury / Regional Freight Forwarding leadership / Banks / Leasing companies / Tax / Legal / Operations).

Responsibilities:

• Lead the development, implementation and management of a global treasury strategy for the company’s freight forwarding business.
• Set up a cash management structure for the freight forwarding business which manages liquidity across the global branch network.
• Implement, maintain or improve the day to day treasury requirements for the freight forwarding business.
• Manage the cash position to optimize return on capital employed.
• Provide leadership/guidance/policies/training, to regional finance managers responsible for freight forwarding branches on how to effectively manage liquidity and currency finance that is based on thresholds in a delegated authority matrix agreed with Group Treasury.
• Oversee intergroup funding structures and cash settlement.
• Work closely with Group Tax and Group Legal to ensure that funding structures are tax efficient and compliant with local laws and regulations in the geographies where our branch network operates.
• Manage bank guarantees where required.
• Oversee and negotiate ABL structures (Factoring), where applicable.
• Perform foreign currency and interest rate hedging in close collaboration with Head Office Treasury.
• Support group treasury on funding processes within the region.
• Report on cash positions, cash forecasts and seek funding for shortfalls.
• Work with statutory auditors and internal auditors.

Other:

• Responsible for the management and leadership of an engaged team, promoting collaboration and ensuring that each is developed and evaluated against goals and objectives which are aligned, specific, measurable, attainable yet challenging, realistic and time-bound.
• Act as an ambassador for the company at all times when working; promoting and demonstrating positive behaviours in harmony with the company’s Principles, values and culture; ensuring the highest level of safety is applied in all activities; understanding and following the company’s Code of Conduct and Ethics policies.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Minimum Education/Experience Requirements:

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree/University degree or equivalent experience in Finance & Banking.
• Master’s degree.

Experience:

• At least [7 to 10] years experience in the management of a treasury function in logistics/freight forwarding business.
• Background in banking.
• Implementation of cash pool structure.

Definite asset:

• Technical treasury experience (implementation of systems).
• Finance modules for ERP systems (Oracle/SAP).

Skills:

• Strong communication skills - You are able to understand and address stakeholder’s needs and you can communicate change requirements.
• Problem solving - You enjoy solving problems. Getting to the root cause. You love taking on difficult challenges and finding creative, innovative solutions. You don’t get flustered easily.
• Detail oriented - You pay strong attention to the details as far as required – you do not lose the view to the problem to be solved and you understand, where 80/20 approaches are suitable and where not. You have a solid understanding of compliance requirements to protect company’s assets.
• Strong collaborator - You can work independently because you self-manage, with limited direction and guidance, but you also enjoy collaborating across dynamic and multi-cultural teams and are personable, helpful and incredibly organized.
• Results oriented - You are proactive in handling competing priorities and meet your deadlines and commitments; you always demonstrate a “can do” positive attitude.
• Confidentiality - You consider and protect the confidentiality of company data at ALL times.
• IT skills - You have a clear interest in systems and you are able to define tasks to the IT team, that are actionable and understandable. You have a profound knowledge of the Microsoft Office Suite.
• Flexibility to travel - You are ready to travel between 10-20% of the time across Europe to our operations to perform tasks on site.
• Languages - You speak and write fluent English – additional languages are a bonus, but not a must, in particular German, Dutch.