42 THE TREASURER JULY | AUGUST 2011

career PROFILE: JUSTIN WELBY

Of secular and sacred

JUSTIN WELBY TELLS PETER WILLIAMS HOW

HE HAS GONE FROM BEINGGROUP TREASURER OF

ENTERPRISE OIL TO THE NEXT BISHOP OF DURHAM.

JULY | AUGUST 2011 THE TREASURER 43

career PROFILE: JUSTIN WELBY

From senior corporate treasurer to senior cleric. It doesn’t rankas the most obvious career move but it is one the VeryReverend Justin Welby has accomplished with apparent easeand much success. In early June Welby was named as the next

Bishop of Durham, making him the fourth most senior cleric in theChurch of England, after the Archbishops of Canterbury and York andthe Bishop of London.

Welby may have given up on Mammon for God but he stillmanages to keep an insightful eye on the world of business. Ask himwhat it means to be Dean of Liverpool Cathedral and he says he ischief executive of a business – a vital one, providing hope in thetangible form of employment for people and wealth generation inEngland’s fifth most deprived ward.

While Welby’s day job is for the Church of England he hasmaintained his association with his former life in the world oftreasury. He is a sought after adviser on corporate governance and isknown to many ACT members as the association’s ethical adviser.Perhaps of more significance, though, is his work as a conflictresolution negotiator, talking to often desperate people in the mosthostile regions of the world.

Part of his success must lie in his dealing with situations withgrace, charm and humour. Welcoming the delegates to this year’sACT annual conference gala dinner, held in his cathedral, he notedthat he usually invited visitors to give generously. After a moment’spause, he continued: “But with so many bankers present, perhapstonight the donation should be the otherway round.”

Graduating from Cambridge Universityat the end of the 1970s, Welby struggledto find a job in the UK but managed tosecure a place in the finance departmentof Elf Aquitaine in Paris, working onlong-term finance in a treasury team ofthree. “They didn’t have a trainingprogramme as such, so they gave me allthe loan documentation to file. That ishow I learnt loan agreements – I read400 of them.”

He won promotion when the numbertwo left and worked on securing long-term finance for Elf, concentrating on

Nigeria, the North Sea and major assets such as shipping. Later hereturned to the UK to run treasury for Elf’s UK subsidiary. His longassociation with the ACT started at that time, with Welby joining thefledgling body in 1983 following an interview. No exams in thosedays. Sadly, he can’t remember who he talked to. “It was a very longtime ago,” he says.

In 1984 he was recruited by Enterprise Oil as group treasurer – nodoubt ACT membership helped to secure the role – running all long-term and short-term finance and insurance for the company. Treasurytaught him much and he remains familiar with the knowledge, usingit in what he calls “quasi-consulting roles”, for which the Church, notthe Dean, is paid.

Welby says: “Treasury teaches you to be decisive. Markets don’tallow you to hang about and vacillate. And treasury teaches youabout teamwork and working collaboratively. In treasury you arethere to serve the company and the operating departments. You haveto work collegiately so you know what they need and you constructsomething that will work for them.” He also praises the treasury andFX communities for their friendships and for not being “dog eat dog”.

Then in the late 1980s the move came from the oil industry to theChurch. Why? “It is difficult to answer that without sounding piousbut there was a clear sense of a vocation, a call from God. It was afamily decision and I went through with it.” Whatever your view offaith you can’t criticise the sincerity or commitment.

The move was not a smooth affair. Welby says that the longer thetwo-year “drawn out” process went on,the less he wanted to become ordained.“At the end of the last day of a three-dayresidential course I was interviewed by abishop, who asked why I wanted to getordained. I said: ‘I don’t, but I can’t getaway from the feeling it is the right thingto do.’” Welby went on tell the bishopthat if he were turned down he wouldtake his wife out to celebrate by findingthe best meal in London money couldbuy. He was accepted.

Back at Enterprise Oil for a fewmonths prior to starting his training hesays a strange thing happened: “Everytreasurer knows this doesn’t happen, but

“AT THE END OF THE LASTDAY OF A THREE-DAY

RESIDENTIAL COURSE I WASINTERVIEWED BY A BISHOP,

WHO ASKED WHY I WANTEDTO GET ORDAINED. I SAID: ‘I

DON’T, BUT I CAN’T GETAWAY FROM THE FEELING IT

IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO.’”

44 THE TREASURER JULY | AUGUST 2011

career PROFILE: JUSTIN WELBY

I had a time where I couldn’t put a foot wrong in terms of calling themarkets. During that period we were doing some very complex dealsand everything worked and I was thinking I’m really good at this. Iwish I could have gone on being as good but quickly went back tonormal, especially on my own finances.”

Really good or not, he left treasury and began a three-yeartheology degree and residential training at Durham University.

After that he served as a curate – an assistant vicar – in a deprivedarea in Nuneaton. That wasfollowed by seven years as avicar, also in the Midlands but ina more prosperous area.

Welby describes all this as“fairly bog standard”. But he wasthen offered a new directionwhere he would spend twoweeks a month in a war zone…oh, and he wouldn’t be paid. Hiswife said that such a crazy offercould only be from God and sohad to be accepted.

The role was based atCoventry Cathedral – destroyedby German bombing during theSecond World War – which sincethat time has developed anetwork of 160 reconciliationcentres around the world,becoming heavily involved inmediation and reconciliationwork. Welby was asked to takecharge of its International Centrefor Reconciliation, which,depending on funding levels, hada team of up to 12 people.

The role involves working inareas of the world where there issignificant civil conflict and soWelby and colleagues travelledto places such northern Nigeria,Kenya and Burundi. And his

involvement continues: in June he was back in Nigeria. He was inBaghdad with a colleague shortly after the invasion of Iraq and hasbeen to Palestine and Israel. He says: “The work varies but we onlywent when we were invited by a competent authority – which couldbe a church leader or someone who controls the local area or agovernment official.”

They go to areas only after assessing whether they can add value.If they go, they talk to both sides, building up relationships with the

aim of bringing people together tomeeting so that they can start upa dialogue.

“The aim is to get them to do itfor themselves as they are the onlyones who will actually solve theproblem.” There is a science ofconflict resolution with well-definedanalytical tools for dealing withdifferent conflict situations.

After such a role, being Dean ofLiverpool Cathedral might seem likea stroll in the park. But it brings itsown strong challenges. Welby – whotook up the position in December2007 – describes the cathedral as acommunity with a responsibilityfor the whole of the Anglicandiocese of Liverpool, which has 230parish churches.

He reports to the Bishop ofLiverpool and ensures the cathedralruns efficiently and grows anddevelops, acting as a place ofworship and spirituality, drawingpeople to the Christian faith. Onedemonstration of its activeparticipation in the community isthe way the building is used to hostevents, including the ACT annualconference dinner.

But the glitz of such eventscannot disguise the hardship that

WHAT DO YOU MOST OFTEN SAY TO YOUR BOSS,EARTHLY AND DIVINE? To the bishop: you may find this anodd idea but… To God: help.

WHAT DO YOU MOST OFTEN SAY TO YOUR TEAM? Are wetaking enough risks?

WHAT DO YOU MOST OFTEN SAY FROM THE PULPIT? Faithenables us to take risk, which means we will succeed… and fail.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO TODAY’STREASURERS? Make sure you see beyond the world oftreasury.

IF YOU WERE A TREASURER TODAY, FIXED OR FLOATING?70% fixed, 30% floating.

WHAT DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE WITH YOU, BIBLE ORIPHONE? The Bible is on the iPhone.

WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT TREASURY? Being ableto finish deals, file them and they’re done.

WHAT DO YOU MISS LEAST ABOUT TREASURY? Pass.Probably endless regulation.

WHICH IS MORE COMPLICATED, THEOLOGY ORTREASURY? Neither, but both involve a lot to do with people.

Quick-fire quotes

career PROFILE: JUSTIN WELBY

Welby encounters. “There is a huge senseof privilege in working in areas like this,dealing from time to time with extremesituations.” He says he is protected frommuch of this and pays tribute to theparish priests – “the people really on thefront line”. Welby says that the Churchcan and does make a difference by theway it offers healing and hope. Hecertainly hasn’t turned his back on theidea of the need for economicdevelopment to work alongside spiritualdevelopment. “Serious, sensibleChristianity is holistic. It should incorporate and transform everyaspect of life. It is dangerous to start artificially to separate thesecular and sacred because you end up with a privatised approach tofaith which has no impact on life.”

A practical application of that philosophy can be seen in Welby’swork on corporate ethics. Ignore his ironic claim that he becameinvolved because he got so much wrong; rather, it goes back to histreasury experience. “The ethics came out of working in an extractiveindustry often in developing countries where ethical questions werevery frequent. During my time there I came to realise there was a gapbetween what I thought, believed and felt was right in my non-worklife and what went on at work.

“At that time I was just beginning tostruggle with and think about how thosetwo things interact. How do you have asensible ethic, which enables business tobe done, which enriches the culture andsociety in which it operates and providesa decent internal rate of return?

“There has got to be a concept of ahigh-enough rate of return. If you arelooking for an infinite one, there isbound to be severe impact on the ethics.It is intriguing to see how somecompanies spectacularly turn

countries around by the way that they behave. It is much moreeffective through enterprise and the private sector than throughstate handouts. The dignity for a human being to earn their ownmoney through creative activity, whatever it happens to be, isfantastically important.”

Welby says he has never regretted the change from treasurydepartment to Church, mainly because of the infinite variety of everyside of life, which he describes as “passionately rewarding and a hugeprivilege to do”.

Peter Williams is editor of The Treasurer.editor@treasurers.org

Going placesg Julian Bowden-Williams AMCT, previously head of tax and treasury at Biffa,has been appointed tax partner, business tax services, cleantech, at Ernst & Young.

g Peter Brookes AMCT has left his position as chief financial officer at QuadEnergy and joined Buried Hill Services (UK) as group financial controller.

g Alan Carr MCT has left his position as European treasurer at NomuraInternational and joined Unite Group as treasury manager.

g Frances Cavanagh AMCT, previously European treasury manager at KelloggEurope, has been appointed VP global liquidity and investments at Citibank.

g Amy Gudgeon AMCT has left her position as finance business partner atRoyal Mail and joined Tesco as finance manager, group operations.

g Andrew Hearn AMCT has left his position as senior risk manager atSantander UK and joined Skipton Building Society as asset liability manager.

g Timothy Howard MCT, previously vice president, finance, at Misys, has beenappointed finance director at Aquilaheywood.

g Tina Hufton AMCT has left her position as senior tax manager atPricewaterhouseCoopers and joined BP as tax adviser.

g Stephen Humphreys AMCT, previously treasurer at BMW (UK) Capital, hasbeen appointed head of group treasury at New Look Retail Group.

g Grahame Pilcher MCT has left his position as executive director at WestLBand joined Australia & New Zealand Banking Group as director.

MEMBERS’ DIRECTORYMembers’ contact details are updated regularly at www.treasurers.org.Email changes to Matthew Trickey: mtrickey@treasurers.org,or phone +44 (0)20 7847 2557

CAREERSFor up-to-date treasury vacancies and careers articles, log onto:www.treasurers.org/careers

THIS MONTH’S ROSTER OF ACT MEMBERS WHO HAVE MOVED ON IN THEIR CAREERS.

JULY | AUGUST 2011 THE TREASURER 45

“THERE HAS GOT TO BEA CONCEPT OF A HIGH-

ENOUGH RATE OF RETURN.IF YOU ARE LOOKING FORAN INFINITE ONE, THERE IS

BOUND TO BE SEVEREIMPACT ON THE ETHICS.”