From the editor.

It's no secret that the CFO's role in most companies has changed markedly in recent years, especially at the biggest corporations. It's also widely understood that there is meaningful "churn" in the CFO suites--part of a broader bulge in management turnover during a period in which most companies have struggled at times to satisfy investors or lock in profitable growth.

Our cover story looks at the evolving role of the CFO from several different angles: from the recruiting side, by talking to search consultants about the skills they think a finance chief should have; the phenomenon of CFOs being promoted or moving to higher-level jobs elsewhere, and their qualifications for higher office; and the rise of "interim" CFOs and others with unusual career paths. Managing Editor Ellen M. Heffes talked to a number of these interim executives and drew some key inferences about the rising demand for specialists and why these individuals took this particular route.

One governance area that draws a lot of attention from shareholder activists and pension funds is public companies' response to shareholder votes--especially those that go against them. Investor relations expert Mary Conger spoke to a number of people in the shareholder community and analyzes why companies react the way they do to such votes--and the potential ramifications.

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Elearning has been commonplace for professional development in various phases of accounting and finance, but it's been modified lately by some providers to focus on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Writer Susan Schott Karr finds that this kind of distance education has become particularly popular with corporate directors who need to better understand the law and how to deal with it.

Financial performance ultimately defines how well a company is performing but not necessarily why it's performing that way, says writer Vicki Powers. Enter benchmarking, which can help answer the "why" as organizations compare processes and identify performance gaps and areas for improvement.

On a timely compliance subject, Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) Research Manager Edith G. Orenstein asked three major audit firms for insights on testing of remediation of internal control weaknesses related to Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404--and the need for communicating what the new internal control reports will mean. There's abundant concern that a higher-than-expected level of deficiencies, material weaknesses and adverse opinions could send some investors running unless those issues are carefully explained.

What's the value of using an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to compile mountains of financial data if it can't sort out apples from oranges? Sandra Fricker Hostetter, an electronic content manager with Rohm & Haas Co., raises important points about data integrity, which starts by insisting on common definitions and managing fundamental changes to financial master data values.

Financial statement users and preparers have had the Jan. 1, 2005 deadline for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implementation practically imprinted on their foreheads for years now. But anyone assuming a smooth and quiet rollout is probably dreaming. Ernst & Young's David Holman concludes that companies that list securities in a market set to follow IFRS, such as those in the European Union, and also follow U.S. standards for their listings here may be unpleasantly surprised to learn that they still have major differences to contend with and explain to investors. It's not such a small world, after all.