Tim de Knegt is Treasurer & Manager Strategic Finance and Treasury, Port of Rotterdam, and he is one of the speakers at the conference Cash & Treasury Management 18-19 August. He will give a presentation on using a blockchain based AI microgrid to trade renewable electricity.
In this article, you can read an interview with Tim de Knegt.
What is your background and role in the company?
I am a well-rounded finance professional with a track record of defining and implementing effective strategies, engaging teams and delivering transformational change. I have experience in several multinational organizations, supported by excellent capabilities in cross functional / cultural cooperation and communication. As a dynamic senior executive, I challenge and redefine the status quo.
I am currently responsible for a team of 13 FTE that run the Strategic Finance & Treasury activities at the Port of Rotterdam Group, these include but are not limited to the financial strategies of the company, Governance and Management of subsidiaries, Investment & Portfolio Management, as well as the following Treasury functions: Payments & Cash management, Liquidity management, Corporate Finance, Investor Relations & Financial Risk Management.
I also promote the Game Changing & Innovation community at Port of Rotterdam which stimulates internal as well as external innovation.
As Board Member for the WereldhavenDagen I am responsible for Finance & Business Development. Stichting WereldHavendagen organises an annual event to promote the Port of Rotterdam, the companies in the port & industrial cluster to bring port and municipality closer together. An event to show the port to the public and allows them to look behind the scenes.
My specialties:
Treasury (the full spectrum of Financial Risk Management, Cash & liquidity Management, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations), Management and Financial Control, (Strategic) Reporting & Intelligence, Governance, Investment & Portfolio Management, Large scale implementations and Innovation.
How do you see the development within Cash and Treasury in the next 5-10 years? What are the possibilities and challenges?
Cash & Treasury will further standardize and automate and the reliance on (correct) data will further evolve. This will allow Treasury professionals to play a broader and more strategic role within the company that they work. The standardization will allow for closer cooperation with other companies and institutions, but it also means that there will be even more stress on interpersonal skills and not just on the hard-finance skills.
Which tendencies have you observed recently within the Cash and Treasury field?
My experience is that treasuries & companies that fixed the roof while the sun was shining are now able to to focus on strategically important projects rather then constantly fixing problems.
What have been the biggest challenges for your treasury department during the pandemic and/or Brexit?
The main challenges initially were to retain the same way of working as before the pandemic, ensuring up to date information and making sure that we could take on the spot decisions (thus adjusting some of the governance). From a management perspective the pandemic was quite a drastic change in running the company. It really sped up our automation initiatives by several years, but at the same time it has made us focus on how to connect with others in an online setting. Brexit did not have any major impact for us, we were very well prepared.
What are your expectations for the conference?
Connecting again with other professionals on current challenges, learn new ways of working and I hope to be able to contribute to solving challenges of others.
What will your keynote at Cash & Treasury Management 2021 be about?
I will be elaborating on our Electricity AI trading initiative together with S&P Global Platts where we hope to implement a new market model that allows clients to trade as much as possible amongst themselves, adjust behaviour, increases availability of sustainable electricity production and storage for our clients while creating more price-stability by reducing the bid-ask spread. A lot of these elements are also present in other commodity markets, and are thus not new to Treasury professionals. I will share how to use Treasury knowledge for important projects for the company. These types of projects give me and my team direct access and practical experience with respect to ESG related topics and gives me a direct insight into what alghorithmic trading and data science can do for finance professionals.
Do you want to hear more from Tim de Knegt?
Join us at Cash & Treaury Management 2021 18-19 August. Read more about the conference here and sign up here.
