How to Become a Strategic Treasurer with Stephanie O’Leary

Getting to the top of your field isn’t just about a bit of elbow grease. You need a good strategy. A strategy can help you harness your strongest capabilities and channel them into achieving both long and short-term treasury career goals. Stephanie O’Leary, the former Vice President of Treasury & Risk Management at Indigo Ag., joins this episode of the Treasury Career Corner to share snippets from her successful treasury journey. She also delves into the strategic nature of treasury and why it’s important to embrace that wholly as you build your career. Stephanie is a trusted advisor to senior leaders and has been successful at providing vision and leadership for high-performance finance organisations. She combines over 25 years of in-depth technical expertise across the financial services industry with the recognised ability to think strategically, drive results, and reduce risks. Most recently, Stephanie was the first Treasurer for a unicorn "ag-tech" start-up, Indigo Ag, where she built the global Treasury and Risk Management infrastructure and secured a first-in-market IP insurance-backed credit facility in excess of $100M. Prior to Indigo, Stephanie spent 13 years at Wellington Management in the finance function, with promotions to Managing Director & Treasurer. She led their debt raising and capital structuring efforts, secured and maintained their S&P rating, developed and implemented a corporate investment portfolio, and oversaw insurance risk management. Her background also includes roles as a divisional CFO for AIG, a management consultant in the financial institutions group at A.T. Kearney, and a bank examiner for the FDIC. Stephanie holds an MBA in Finance and Strategic Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an AB in English cum laude from the College of the Holy Cross.

On the podcast Stephanie O'Leary and I discussed…

• How Stephanie discovered the world of finance and treasury
• What Stephanie found appealing about treasury
• Stephanie’s treasury ethos
• Why treasury is more strategic than other business functions
• Why execution and delivery are important in a treasury career
• Stephanie’s advice to aspiring treasurers

You can connect with Stephanie on 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! If you’re enjoying the show please rate and review us on whatever podcast app you listen to us on, for Apple Podcasts click here!