Speaking events and Quotes

EuroFinance Miami 2022: Risk management, the heart of treasury

Treasurers are no stranger to managing risk for the business; financial risks have long been at the heart of treasury. But the remit continues to expand as risk threats grow. In the past few decades, we have had financial crisis, a pandemic that introduced a host of new areas to account for including an uptick in fraud from WFH practices, supply chain disruption and liquidity to issues, a war in Ukraine impacting economics around the world and a fast path to digitalization that introduced new threats to the business. How does treasury manage this complex ever-changing environment? In this panel of prominent treasury experts, we ask these companies to outline their risk management strategies, the areas within the treasury remit, the growing threats they believe their businesses face and we ask them to brainstorm about other disruptions on the horizon.  Speakers included Johan Nystedt, President of Nystedt Enterprise Solutions

EuroFinance Geneva 2018: Use ERM to seek out opportunities

Enterprise risk management (ERM) – aka ‘total’ risk management – is becoming a tool to seek out additional revenue and acquisition opportunities, treasurers from Conagra, Ericsson and Henkel told a panel discussion the International Treasury Management conference in Geneva. They agreed that for ERM to “take off” it needs to be part of the strategic objectives of the business. Johan Nystedt, VP treasurer and chief risk officer for Chicago-based food producer Conagra Brands said that the company was considering its appetite for risk and ready to take on more if the returns were attractive enough.

Total risk management Traditionally finance functions have focused on specific, financial risks – FX, interest rate, commodity and other asset prices. But recent history has demonstrated that some of the most significant risks to the business fall outside that remit. Enterprise risk management has emerged to deal with issues such as business continuity, political risk, cyber risk, legal, regulatory and governance risk and technology risk – among others. These risks pose difficulties for purely quantitative financial models and they are also difficult to incorporate into the kinds of financial forecasting and planning upon which companies rely when they make decisions on funding, cash and liquidity management and balance sheet structure. So what are the key risk metrics ERM models work off? Who manages those risks and how? And how can treasury and finance factor them in to the more conventional financial risk management ‘machine’?

EuroFinance Barcelona 2017: The perfect partner for business 

This case study will look at how treasury can play a role in the strategic aspects of business partnering. Treasurer Johan Nystedt, fresh from turning treasury into a more strategic role at Levi Strauss, joined Conagra Brands in April 2016 as the Treasurer and head of Investor Relations, looking for ways that his department could work with the business to create more value. This has included the centralization of FX, the spin-off of the Lamb Weston business, various sales and acquisitions, and the renegotiation of the company’s credit facility. Treasury participates in the Audit and Finance Committee meetings of the Board and chairs the Risk Oversight Committee, oversees Investor Relations and has made some significant changes to the company’s debt profile

EuroFinance Copenhagen 2015: A timely message on profit vs sustainability

Three major corporate names - Levi Strauss, Starbucks and Swiss flavours, fragrances and cosmetics group Givaudan - were represented in a debate on the balance between corporates' drive for profitability and a sustainable finance function. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, said Johan Nystedt, vice president finance and global corporate treasurer at the iconic blue jeans label. 'Not only is sustainability the right policy to follow, but it's also a profitable one.'