“From a leadership perspective, we’re looking for people with strong data literacy,” says Winkie Choi, head of EMEA Treasury at Amazon. She clarifies, “You don’t have to be a data scientist”, but having enough fluency to know what questions to ask and to flag when the numbers don’t look right is important.
For Jean-Philippe De Waele, vice president and assistant treasurer at Johnson Controls, technological developments have not only changed who he hires, but how he hires. “I have no clue what a good data analyst is – I don’t have those skills,” he admits. “I have to partner with the IT folks to help me recruit the right talent, which is something I’ve never done before… I barely know the right questions to ask; I know the output I want, but not how to get there.”
AI may have infiltrated almost all aspects of operations, but De Waele is certain that it is far from taking over completely. “We always need to do more with less people. You need to get that productivity gain from somewhere, and that somewhere is AI,” he says. “Whether AI could replace analysts – I can’t see that yet.”
AI can’t think – humans can
Choi predicts that with AI, treasury will evolve into a more advisory role – which will also change the requirements for treasurers looking to climb the career ladder. “Being a treasury analyst is a way to learn the piping, to know what it takes. From there, we need someone who is able to communicate effectively, at the level of communication that is needed to convince people.”
She continues, “It is about how you leverage the data and present it to make it to a decision point. And I do think that the skill set we’re looking for is going to be slightly different. It’s not about the knowledge you have. It’s about your learning agility – people who can learn, understand, absorb, and make judgement.”
Olivier Smekens, global head of Treasury at Breitling agrees. “Having a degree is the basic thing. For me, what I like when I go through CVs is people who have moved countries, people that had some challenges… that tells a lot about their personality, character, and perseverance. I like to select analysts based on the grit they have. Skills can be learnt as long as people are curious.”
Speakers:
Winkie Choi, Head of EMEA Treasury, Amazon
Jean-Philippe De Waele, Vice President and Assistant Treasurer, Johnson Controls
Katie Hardie, Executive Consultant, Global Treasury, The Treasury Recruitment Company
Olivier Smekens, Global Head of Treasury, Breitling
• News from Treasury 360° Europe 2026, are gathered here.
• And why not spread the posts in our LinkedIn flow? Sign up to follow if you haven’t already – and share this post!
• Find here the main conference website, with the agenda.
• Download the event magazine here .
• View sessions in full after the event on our video page.