Arts Graduate to Treasury Professional with Julia Fordham

Treasury is such a fascinating career path to journey down, absolutely everyone has a different story of how they got there. In fact, you might not even know that it’s the career for you until you dive in! On this episode of the podcast, I’m joined by Julia Fordham, the Group Head of Treasury at Small World Financial Services. We cover her unexpected dive into the finance industry, her career journey and some amazing lessons she learnt along the way.

Julia graduated from Selwyn College, Cambridge with a BA (Hons) in Classics. She holds professional qualifications from the Association of Corporate Treasurers, and the Chartered Institute of Bankers. Before moving into treasury, she had a background in commercial banking, having started her career at Barclays.  

Julia has worked in financial services since graduating, and since the mid-nineties performed a variety of senior treasury management roles. Most recently with Old Mutual plc and prior to that at Morgan Stanley, where she was directly involved in crisis management during the crash of 2008. Julia is currently Group Head of Treasury at Small World Group, being the first person to hold this position. Small World Financial Services is one of the world’s leading and most trusted payment service providers offering a secure, fast and inexpensive way to send and receive money anywhere in the world.

On the podcast, we discussed...

• How Julia went from studying Classics at Cambridge to starting a career in treasury
• What experience she gained from the finance industry to springboard her into the treasury profession
• What it was like being a treasurer during the financial crisis in 2008
• Who Small World Financial Services are and what they do
• What the treasury industry was like when Julia first started and how it’s developed since
• Julia shares advice for people looking to follow a similar career path to herself

Click here to learn more about Julia’s interview with Jack Large on how to close a corporate treasury department down.

If you’d like to get in touch with Julia, you can connect with her 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!

If you’re enjoying the show please rate and review us on whatever podcast app you listen to us on, for iTunes click here!