OREANDA-NEWS. November 28, 2013. Saudi Aramco further enhanced its reputation as a leading global company on issues of corporate relevance by hosting the recent International Treasurers’ Forum, which featured two days of discussions involving treasurers and finance leaders from major oil and petrochemical companies around the world.

“This gathering is not about Saudi Aramco,” Mohammad A. Al-Ali, senior vice president of Finance, said in opening the forum on Oct. 23 at the North Park auditorium. “It is about further development of mutually beneficial relationships — relationships that will lead to better understanding of both the global challenges facing the oil, energy, mineral resource and chemicals industries — and the likely impacts of these challenges on treasury practices.”

Topics covered at the forum included foreign exchange and interest rates, credit risk, central banks’ monetary policies and quantitative easing, corporate governance, Islamic financing and pension investment.

Guests participating in the forum included treasurers and senior finance executives from Dow Chemical, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, Total S.A., Marathon, Sumitomo Chemical, Indian Oil Co., Sinopec, Sabic, Ma’aden and SEC, in addition to Saudi Aramco’s entire treasury organization, consisting of members of management, subject matter experts (SMEs) and Professional Development Program (PDP) employees.

The second day of the forum featured lively discussions on corporate governance featuring topics such as the optimal level of delegation to avail time for business issues, balanced policies and procedures to encourage entrepreneurship in business, emerging challenges faced in corporate governance, credit rating agencies considerations in addressing governance issues into rating and the effectiveness of treasury risk-related committees.

At the conclusion of the forum, Saudi Aramco treasurer Jamal A. Al-Rammah thanked the participants who took the time to share their expertise. “It is comforting to see the participation and contributions of our 38 young people who will be the future leaders of Treasury,” said Al-Rammah. “I personally learned a lot from these discussions. There were different philosophies presented that were very beneficial for us and our colleagues.” He added that the connections made through the forum will also serve to “establish a network of conversation” on important topics pertaining to treasury and finance on an ongoing basis.

The forum also drew high praise from the experts who participated. “I think that it’s a hallmark of a world-class company that they set the standard for others in organizing events such as this forum,” Andy Longden, group treasurer with Shell, stated in his closing remarks. “It shows that Saudi Aramco is the vanguard of companies globally.” Longden added that one of the key things he will take away from the forum was that “I think we all found a commonality of interests that can be shared.”

“I agree very much that Saudi Aramco is in a unique position to bring these companies together in a way that others can’t,” said Timothy T. Griffith, vice president of finance and treasurer with Marathon Petroleum Corp.

Fernando Ruiz, corporate vice president and treasurer with Dow Chemical Co., also valued the experience offered by the forum. “I really liked the format that gave us an opportunity to see more of the Saudi Aramco team. All in all, I think it was a big success.”

Navin K. Mahajan, assistant treasurer with Chevron, echoed those thoughts. “Overall, I think it really was an excellent format,” said Mahajan. “I learned a lot just listening to my colleagues. I think this forum really showed that you are at the forefront of companies.”

“We have seen that we all seem to have the same issues,” said Olivier Devouassoux, group vice president of finance-corporate and structured finance operating subsidiaries with Total. “(Through this forum), we can see the experiences of the different companies and take value and learn from those experiences.”