Proven FEI veterans take their place as leaders: Alexis Dow and Louis O'Brien, the incoming chairs of FEI and FEI Canada, have each established long records of service at both local and national levels. Their stated goals diverge, however, reflecting their organizations' differing needs.

For M. Alexis Dow (the M is for Mary), the route to the chair post for 2007-08, the top volunteer position at FEI, has come through leadership of her local chapter in Portland, Ore., and has taken her through a series of steps at the national level to become the third woman chair in FEI history.

Dow also brings to FEI the fruits of a tremendously varied career. That has included public accounting service for Pricewaterhouse-Coopers and Deloitte & Touche, CFO of a lumber retailer, a CPA in her own practice and many years as an auditor for Metro, a local government agency that handles operations for public facilities such as the local convention center and zoo, as well as solid waste disposal.

Her initial relationship with FEI began in 1985, shortly after she had been named CFO of Copeland Lumber Yards, an 80-location lumber retailer operating in five states. She joined the Portland Chapter, and served in a host of positions--secretary, treasurer, membership and scholarship chair--before becoming chapter president in 1994-95.

In subsequent years, Dow became a Western Area director, an Area Vice President, and then national Treasurer and Secretary before joining the rotation in the Office of the Chairman. She was Vice Chair in 2006-7.

Joining for what are commonly cited as FEI attributes--peer contact, networking, professional growth and camaraderie--Dow says she has gained tremendously from her long membership. It's "more than I could ever quantify," she says--"friendship, professional affiliations locally and nationally, continuing professional education and the ability to observe other financial leaders in action as they fulfill their volunteer leadership obligations. Plus hearing interesting speakers at national meetings, such as Frank Abagnale [keynoter at the 2007 Summit in Boston] and many interesting local dinner meeting speakers."

Looking ahead to the coming year--she officially took office on July 1--Dow believes FEI needs to maintain its advocacy efforts in Washington and "the consistent interaction of the FEI president with regulatory bodies. We need to monitor regulatory initiatives and develop an FEI position that best serves our members. We also need to encourage regulatory action where a perceived need exists--i.e., with regard to complexity."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Updating FEI's strategic plan and building FEI's international presence are two specific goals. Regarding the latter, she says, "A key step is articulating the best way for FEI to establish the leadership of FEI with FEI-like organizations in other countries. Currently, we've been forming unique affiliations with FEI-like organizations in individual countries. Each one is a little different, and its needs are a bit different. We need to continue to identity those [FEI-type] organizations, what they do, how they are structured, and how to best align with them."

It is the area of growing membership that Dow sees as most vital; she cites it is the one thing she would like to accomplish in her time as chair. She acknowledges that it won't be easy. "There are two key elements: one is evaluating the value proposition--what do individuals get from FEI membership? The second is communicating to potential members. The challenge is getting the message in front of them; the competition for their time and attention is intense."

Communication is something that has been close to Dow for years. Until recently, she had been auditor for Metro, which she says is the only land use planning and transportation entity in the country with elected leaders. It covers three local counties in and around Portland and 25 cities. That meant she had to campaign, use billboards and radio time and meet with voters--all without the benefit of any political party apparatus.

Chose What to Audit

Somewhat like an ombudsman, she selected what to audit and reported to citizens on her findings. Her focus, she says, was on ways of delivering more services for less money and, of course, ferreting out fraud (which did indeed surface). She served three terms as auditor from 1995-2007, but was unsuccessful in her latest bid for re-election. While there, she won a number of awards, including eight national awards from the Association of Local Government Auditors.

Even longer than her stint at Metro was Dow's service as chair of the audit committee of Longview Fibre Co., which began in 1986 and ended earlier this year. The New York Stock Exchange-listed timber and wood product manufacturing company was converted to a real estate investment trust (REIT) and became the target of a hostile takeover effort. After evaluating strategic alternatives, the company sold to a Toronto-based asset management firm this past spring.

"I started the audit committee at Longview," Dow says. "I figured out what would work with Longview's corporate culture, and I kept them apprised of good practices; I was pleased when we annually compared favorably to best practices for audit committees." The passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act changed things dramatically, she says, with the formation of new board committees and added complexity; "more than the change to the audit committee was the change to the board itself." Her director training includes a course at Harvard Business School on making boards more effective.

During the early years with Longview, she was self-employed as a CPA from 1986-94; she also served as a technical oversight and offsite reviewer for the Quality Review Program for the Oregon Society of CPAs from 1991-95 and even sold the Don-caster line of women's fashions seasonally from 1989-95.

Diverse experiences represented nothing new for Dow; she developed a wide-ranging base of accounting clients in the Northwest area after earning her CPA and relocating to Portland some 30 years ago. In 13 years at the two Big Eight (now Big Four) firms, she served customers ranging from high-tech (including Hewlett-Packard), retail, professional services, wholesale, local governments, manufacturing and natural resources. The latter included Longview Fibre.

Dow is actually a transplant from New Jersey, where she grew up in South River--the home of former Heisman Trophy winner and star Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann--and graduated from the University of Rhode Island. She remembers Theismann as "Joey Theesman," the way his name was pronounced before the Notre Dame sports department decided to hitch his star to the Heisman campaign.

She still spends a couple of weeks each summer at the Jersey Shore, on Long Beach Island.

Dow is a committed Oregonian. "I really like the climate--it's never too hot or too cold," she says. "You have lots of the benefits of urban living without the congestion. I live in a residential neighborhood, but it's within three miles of the financial district."

Among her leisure interests are crossword puzzles, ballroom dancing--which she says she just started last year and "is just plain fun"--and travel. She's been to Paris and London, China, Mexico, the Caribbean and Canada, among others, and spent two weeks a few years ago in Italy with her children, Elizabeth and Alex, now 21 and 19, respectively. "I still need to see Greece," she says.

Asked about a business lesson that has made a difference, Dow says: "Service with a smile. Listen carefully; listen for literal meaning and listen to what is not being said. Be creative, and communicate with people to understand what their real needs are. Always be your best--it brings the most professional satisfaction, and you are always on display and being judged."

Personally, Dow looks forward to "moving on to the next phase of my life," which will mean "seeking additional board seats and projects that allow me to guide enterprises to reach their full potential." She adds: "I am excited about being [FEI] chair when a new leader is on board--it's a time of change, and excitement."

--JM

GOALS: UPGRADING FEIC INFLUENCE, INFRASTRUCTURE

Having become treasurer and CFO of Fleck Manufacturing Inc. in Ontario in 1983, Louis F. O'Brien found he needed "a network of experienced professionals who weren't trying to sell me their services." So, a year later, when a member of his staff--who was a member of the Southwestern Ontario Chapter--suggested he join FEI, he did just that.

As he's changed jobs, O'Brien has moved his membership--from Southwestern Ontario, to Toronto, to Atlantic and finally, to the Ottawa Chapter--as he says his membership has provided him with a "terrific network of executives around the country."

He's also provided leadership to the organization by serving in several positions, at the local and then at the national level, as treasurer and then vice chair. Now, as O'Brien takes his turn as chairman of FEI Canada for 2007-08, he recognizes his opportunity to make a difference.

His list of goals include filling some immediate needs of the organization, continuing along the path his predecessors have paved and helping move the organization further along in information technology.

The first and most immediate goal is to find a replacement for the FEI Canada CEO, a spot that was vacated in May. At press time, an interim president was set and the process was proceeding, but, realistically, he expects it will take several months to complete.

A second main goal--and one that O'Brien says is key for him--is to improve and enhance FEIC's profile and brand recognition. O'Brien says he wants to get FEIC's profile and credibility to the point that "when the Canadian Federal Minister of Finance is looking for input to a finance or taxation change he is considering, [that] one of the first organizations he would call is FEIC."

Additionally, under his leadership, O'Brien plans to be involved in overseeing the implementation of a new membership database, improve chapter/national relations and governance and continue the organization's impressive double-digit membership growth.

O'Brien is president of the Parcels Division and senior vice president for Canada Post Corp., a full-service communications and distribution service provider in Ottawa (which is, in some ways, similar to the U.S. Postal Service). He started with Canada Post in 1992 as corporate manager of the M & A group and has held several financial positions, rising to the president position last year.

Prior to Canada Post, O'Brien had extensive financial experience with other companies, including a 1978-83 stint with Procter & Gamble Inc. in several of its Canadian locations. He holds an engineering diploma from Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. Johns and an engineering degree in mining from Dalhousie University in Halifax, as well as an MBA from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

He has been married to Sharon for more than 26 years, and they have two children. Heather, 22, is a graduate of ABU in New Brunswick and Cameron, 19, is enrolled in a program for international studies and globalization at the University of Ottawa.

O'Brien believes the interaction between FEI U.S. and Canada is "acceptable, but could improve." If FEI really wants to live up to the "international" part of its name, he comments, "it needs to look outside its borders." He's offering to host a cross-border FEI board meeting, an idea he has already communicated to FEI President and CEO Michael P. Cangemi.

Sees Mutual Benefits

He believes there are a lot of areas "where both organizations can learn from each other." For example, he indicates that FEI U.S. has an excellent relationship with standard-setters, the media, etc., while Canada needs to do a lot in that area. On the other hand, Canada's membership continues to grow rapidly, as it has been for several years, while U.S. membership is flat; he believes something could be done "to turn that around to growth."

On the business of the members, financial reporting and compliance, O'Brien believes that no CFO will argue that more controls are a bad thing, but only up to a point. Sarbanes-Oxley, for example, he says, "was a quickly implemented and probably necessary solution to a perceived problem at the time; however, it's created a number of problems of its own."

Compliance, he says, has now become expensive enough to start some global firms thinking about moving to a different jurisdiction. Indeed, he adds that "global companies will increasingly find the cost of complying with and translating between multiple accounting standards to be unacceptably high."

He favors a single set of accounting standards--and believes the world would be better served by such. "I am not particularly fussed about which one becomes the standard," says O'Brien, "although the numbers of countries planning to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) seem to be growing."

Back in his first CFO job at Fleck--at the time a company with three Ontario locations and $25 million in sales--O'Brien became involved in acquisitions. After extensive planning, he, along with the three senior leaders, went on an "acquisition exercise," which resulted in catapulting the company to $150 million in revenue, "yielding an amazing ROI and ROE, with plants and customers in Ontario, four U.S. states, two Mexican states and Singapore."

O'Brien says a lesson he learned from that experience back in the early '80s has stayed with him, and he plans to apply it to achieving his goals for FEIC: "When you know what you want, and the leadership is committed, you can succeed at the most ambitious plans."

--EMH