What It’s Like Working In Private Vs. Public Equity With Peter Russell

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Featuring

Mike Richards

CEO, The Treasury Recruitment Company

About this episode

I’m thrilled to have Peter Russell, the Head of Treasury and Investor Relations at Travelport, joining me on this episode of the Treasury Career Corner podcast. We dive into everything treasury related from his early steps in accounting to his first deputy treasury role, managing and coaching a team and much more!

In case you didn’t know, Travelport is a global technology company that makes the experience of buying and managing travel better for everyone. It operates a travel commerce platform providing distribution, technology, payment and other solutions for the global travel and tourism industry. The company facilitates travel commerce by connecting the world’s leading travel providers with online and offline travel buyers in a proprietary business-to-business (B2B) travel platform.

With a net revenue of over $2.5 billion in 2018, Travelport has over 3,700 employees and is represented in approximately 180 countries and territories. Travel is a $9 trillion industry – and Travelport is at its heart, powering the experiences that the world’s leading travel brands provide. In 2018, their platform processed over $89 billion of travel spend helping their customers maximise the value of every trip.

As Head of Treasury and Investor Relations at Travelport, Peter is responsible for the group’s global treasury operations and investor relations management. He reports to the CFO and coaches a treasury team of seven in the UK and two Investor Relations Analysts based in the UK.

On the podcast we discussed…

  • How Peter went from doing an engineering degree to accounting
  • How the treasury industry has changed and grown in Diageo specifically
  • What Peter learned from his previous positions in Enron, Deloitte and an insight into his first deputy treasury role at Alliance UniChem
  • Transitioning from private equity to public and the impact the process has on treasury
  • Tips for managing and coaching a treasury team
  • Peter shares career advice for aspiring treasurers and reveals the importance of being intellectually curious

If you’d like to get in touch with Peter, you can connect with him via LinkedIn.

Are you interested in pursuing a career within Treasury?

Whether you’ve recently graduated, or you want to search for new job opportunities to help develop your treasury career, The Treasury Recruitment Company can help you in your search for the perfect job. Find out more here. Or, send us your CV and let us help you in your next career move!

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🎧 Earn CTP & FPAC Credits by Listening to the Podcast

Whether you’re at the gym, on your commute, or walking the dog – you can now make your podcast time count toward your professional development.

We’re thrilled to share that Treasury Career Corner podcast episodes now qualify for CTP and FPAC recertification credits through the AFP’s Independent Study category.

How It Works:

  • Listen to a Treasury Career Corner podcast episode
  • Complete the short multiple-choice quiz
  • Score 80%+ to pass
  • Submit your credits to AFP as part of your recertification record

➡️ Credits earned per episode length:

  • 30 mins = 0.6 credits
  • 45 mins = 0.9 credits
  • 60 mins = 1.2 credits

No filler. Just real treasury conversations covering leadership, strategy, risk, technology, and team building.

🧠 Quick Facts:

  • 📝 Quizzes contain 6–10 multiple-choice questions
  • 🎯 You need 80%+ to pass
  • ✍️ Quiz submissions are reviewed manually
  • 📋 We must then VERIFY you are a CTP treasury professional to help prevent automated or non-genuine submissions
  • ✅ Once verified, we mark your quiz and send CTP credit confirmations every Friday
  • 📨 If you need results sooner? Then email mike@treasuryrecruitment.com and we’ll try to prioritise the marking of your latest quiz

NOTE: In line with AFP compliance requirements, no more than two quizzes may be completed per day.