Starting Treasury from Scratch: One Expert’s Not Secret Recipe

NVA treasurer Chris Ingoldsby shares insights grounded in his creation of the treasury function at two companies.

Building a complete treasury team is a marathon, not a sprint. However, there’s real value in a new treasurer scoring some quick wins soon after joining a company. That’s according to Chris Ingoldsby, an ultramarathoner who created the treasury function at NVA, and previously built it from the ground up at Riverbed Technology.

• You’ll hear more insights from Mr. Ingoldsby about his approach to building treasury from scratch in the newest episode of the Strategic Finance Lab podcast, a conversation with NeuGroup’s Antony Michels.
• Listen to the podcast now by heading to Apple or Spotify.

NVA, short for National Veterinary Associates, is a for-profit business owned by the European private equity firm JAB Holding Company, and comprises 1,500 locally run veterinary clinics, hospitals and pet resorts located in North America and overseas.

• Because the company has a vastly different business model from the tech companies where he worked before, Mr. Ingoldsby stresses the need for an incoming treasurer to know what they know and then surround themselves with people with knowledge they don’t possess but need. It also helps to have an open mind, a taste for adventure and a tolerance for risk.
• Mr. Ingoldsby—who in addition to running ultramarathons likes to hang glide—said this about his experience so far at NVA and making treasury a strategic partner of the business: “It was really kind of going out and figuring out how do I define treasury, what is treasury going to be? It really started out with the basics….creating the building blocks. Once you create the building blocks, then you get to do more of the fun stuff.”