Mike Richards joined the ACT Annual Conference 2026 in Liverpool for the roundtable session “Treasury Talent: Skills for the Future”, held in May 2026.

This session explored the future skills treasury professionals will need as AI and automation take on more routine and analytical work.

Together, the panel discussed how treasury roles are changing, where human judgement still matters, whether teams may become leaner and more strategic, and what hiring managers should be looking for when building future treasury teams.

Speakers included:

• Mike Richards, CEO & Founder at The Treasury Recruitment Company
• Alan Chitty, Group Treasurer at Pepco
• Victoria Underwood, Treasury Manager from Imperial Brands

The session was facilitated by Louise Woodroffe, Head of Treasury from Hastings Direct, in association with the ACT Future Leaders in Treasury.

Key topics discussed:

00:00 Session Kick-off

00:46 Format and Participation

01:25 Meet the Panel

03:45 AI Adoption Today

04:57 Copilot vs Claude Debate

08:25 What Humans Still Do

10:17 Jobs and Team Reshaping

13:44 Recruitment Market Shift

15:18 Hiring for Future Skills

19:22 Communication and Impact

24:41 Networking and Visibility

26:55 Training Juniors in AI Era

30:40 Hiring for Attitude

31:08 Interviewing for Curiosity

34:30 Psychometrics and CV Signals

37:00 Future Skills in Treasury

40:54 Treasury Plus Networking

43:15 Soft Skills Simplify Jargon

46:04 AI Written CVs and Interviews

49:44 Switching into Treasury

53:12 Career Skills and Communication

55:56 Roundtable and Wrap Up

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