My Life in Treasury
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My Life in Treasury: Frances Cavanagh, Willis Towers Watson

How did you come into treasury and what attracted you to the profession?

I was working within the Accounts Payable team in the shared service centre at Kellogg in Manchester. As my team were processing the payment files, I was interacting with treasury daily to discuss funding requirements, as well as areas of common interest such as systems, new accounts and process changes. As I learned more about treasury I found that I was drawn to the banking and cash management aspects of the function, and was intrigued by its involvement with numerous partners within the business. The idea of working with the outside banking world also really appealed to me, as it’s an opportunity that you don’t often get in finance.  When a position opened up in treasury, I asked to be considered for it, and was lucky enough to be offered the job. 

How has your career progressed through to the role that you hold today?

I spent 13 happy years at Kellogg and held various roles within Treasury, ranging from Treasury Analyst to European Treasury Manager. During this time the business changed significantly and also moved the European HQ to Ireland. I moved along with it and continued on my treasury journey. I worked on several key initiatives – acquisitions, tax restructuring, implementation of a multi-currency notional cash pool, commercial paper programme, implementation of a treasury management system.

After over a decade at Kellogg I decided that it was time for a change. Having spent so long as a customer, I wanted to experience life inside a bank and went to Citigroup as a product manager for the now superseded liquidity reporting tool Treasury Vision. It was a valuable experience and I was grateful for the opportunity to work on liquidity product launches, and to get first-hand experience of how the bank’s internal systems and processes worked.  

I then took three years off when I had my daughter and lived in Miami for a while which was a completely different experience!