Two generations of CFOs: how different are they? We asked CFOs under 40 and over 60 years of age how they approach the same challenges, circa 2005. Here's what they had to say.

The chief financial officer (CFO) is a relatively recent executive title, if you call 30 or 40 years recent. Some who hold the title today were barely born when it came to life, while others--early then in their careers--had something to aspire to. Prior to CFO, the top finance spot was usually senior vice president, chief accounting officer (CAO) or controller (or comptroller). It was during the 1960s and 70s when the CFO emerged, as a response to the growing interest in accessing capital markets. Elevating the finance role to a C-level post was seen to carry more weight.

By the 1990s and beyond, much was made of the fact that finance chiefs were shedding their "green-eyeshade" image and becoming strategic advisors to and partners with the CEO. Along with the explosion of 24/7 business news and media, CFOs were expected to be media-savvy, smartly discussing earnings, responding to analyst calls and posting webcasts of earnings notices on Internet sites.

Long gone are the days when the finance chief was holed away in a back office toiling over ledgers. Indeed, a large number of today's CFOs lack accounting backgrounds and a certified public accountant (CPA) designation. Today's finance guys and gals (another more recent occurrence) are expected to know all about the business and its customers, the industry and competitive issues, in addition to mastering the necessary finance and regulatory matters.

With the growth of the CFO role, however, came unintended consequences. Some attribute the recent spate of accounting scandals--the Enrons, Adelphias, WorldComs and others--to finance chiefs who forgot their primary role as the company's moral conscience, and to say, "No!"

Also, as the role has evolved, its qualifications have changed. Time was when the young finance or accounting major would aspire to the CFO seat. They'd often start out with an accounting firm and earn their CPA, all the while putting in their time, getting the right experience, getting hired by a client company and making that slow climb to the top finance spot by the time they reach age 50 or so.

In today's companies, CFOs can be in their 30s. Weaned on technology and often light on accounting skills, they contrast with those in their 60s--often lean in technology and strong on the traditional finance background.

To find out how these two generations are handling the job's inherent challenges, Financial Executive invited a half-dozen CFO members of Financial Executives International (FEI) to answer a series of questions about their careers, their experiences and qualifications, their concept of their role and their expectations. These CFOs are from a variety of industries and geographies. What they have in common, besides their CFO title, is a lot more than you'd expect. Three of them are under 40 and three are over 60. (Greg Millman interviewed the under-40s and Ellen Heffes interviewed the over-60s.) What follows are their stories. We invite you, our readers, to be the judge: How different are they ... really?

--Ellen M. Heffes

A CFO/IT Guy

Richard J. Taggart, 63

Executive Vice President and CFO

Weyerhaeuser Co., Seattle

NYSE: WY; $22.7 billion, 2004 revenues

One of the world's largest integrated forest-products companies

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You'd expect that implementing and integrating financial systems for a $22 billion-plus company would be the responsibility of an information technology expert. Not so at Weyerhaeuser Co., where CFO, Richard J. Taggart is completing a project toward common financial systems company-wide that he started before moving into the top spot.

CFO for just three years, Taggart says the accounting systems are "critical to comply with regulations efficiently" for his very diverse company, which is geographically spread out all over North America.

He's had few employers--three in his 35-year career--and since joining Weyerhaeuser (taking an education break midway through his career), he's moved both horizontally and vertically by shifting focus and moving up the corporate ladder.

Trained as an economist, Taggart started in operations research for Ford Motor Co. and then joined Weyerhaeuser in 1974 as a manager of information systems and operations research. To create broader opportunities, in his early 40s, he attended the University of Washington Business School, taking accounting courses and passing the CPA exam. After a short stint with another company, he rejoined Weyerhaeuser as a financial manager for an operating business before being summoned to corporate headquarters to be groomed for higher-level positions by the then-CFO.

Taggart believes the CFO role has evolved in importance because of technology and institutional investors' demands. He concedes that he is better equipped than others in his shoes to deal with the technological changes. "If you don't understand the difficulty of managing change and large information-system projects, you're going to have some train wrecks that are going to cost you hundreds of millions of dollars," he says.

One significant change he's lived through--and has had to adapt to--is how technology affects communications with the financial markets--notably, the evolution of conference calls and emails. "It has increased the speed at which communications takes place, and that has happened in a regulatory environment that requires you to report things sooner." With this, he says, comes the expectation that everything a company does will be reviewed with the financial community on a webcast conference call.

He extols the benefits of having broad experience, in whatever business you are in, or having exposure to accounting and controllership, the

capital markets, bank markets and financing and tax. It's also useful to have some involvement in communications with the investment community--"understanding the players is really critical."

Taggart sees the biggest challenge for large-corporation CFOs as building the expertise of the people that work for them and ensuring that you're getting the best people you can--who have networks and can take the time to stay current.

The CFO role, as he sees it, is to give clear, objective advice to the CEO on any number of internal, investment and strategic issues.

From where does this CFO feel pressure? With regulatory and industry regulations a given ("You adapt to them; they kind of become a way of life"), he says public companies are facing increasing pressures from the varied agendas of shareholders and shareholder activists. This manifests itself in the area of corporate governance and activism aimed at influencing the company's strategy. "They're frequently contradictory," he argues--"not like a regulation that says, 'This is what you do--boom, boom, boom.' These are pressures that are coming from six different directions that want you to do three different things."

Weyerhaeuser's mandatory retirement policy for senior officers means Taggart will retire at age 65, in two years. He envisions serving on a board of directors ("that would be satisfying") and, yes, he'll play golf, spend family time and do other retirement things. "We have an over-funded pension plan," he says of his company's provisions, and notes that much of his life--including raising his family--was not lived on a CFO salary, so he enjoys a "relatively modest standard of living." He's looking forward to retirement's promise to create a lot of opportunities, and he says he has "a lot of energy to pursue those things."

This CFO's An Asset

Suzanne Seabolt, 39

Regional CFO

Synovus Financial Corp., Birmingham, Ala.

NYSE: SNV; assets of $25 billion

A diversified Columbus, Ga.-based financial services holding company

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One question in the Synovus Financial Corp.'s 360-degree evaluation asks, "Does this person have a healthy work-life balance? To Suzanne Seabolt, one of 10 newly appointed regional CFOs for Synovus Financial Corp. (officially beginning on Jan. 1, 2006), the "life" side of balance comes by way of her interests in golf, music and theater. She is single and has no children. Her career itself reflects a kind of balance that may not have characterized that of the CFO of yesteryear.

An active member and former President of the Birmingham Chapter of FEI, Seabolt notes a career-path shift between older CFOs, who have tended to have had public accounting backgrounds, and younger CFOs, who tend to "come in from the operating side of the business."

With a finance degree from the University of Alabama in 1989, Seabolt began her career in an entry-level position in internal audit at Amsouth Bancorp Inc. She returned to night school for an accounting degree and obtained her CPA designation. In 1996, she joined First Commercial Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Synovus as Vice President and Controller, where she's spent most of her career thus far--making CFO by age 35.

But accounting soon gave way to broad business strategy. "My job evolved," she says. "I spent less time on true accounting work and more time looking at branch locations, asset/liability management and big-picture strategic things." She says she spends much of her time now helping guide other managers through the storms of competitive emotion and financial uncertainty to focus on the information needed to frame a cold, clear choice. She views her role as "bringing a true business analytical process to the decision-making."

Although Seabolt describes herself as a "closet computer geek," she also expresses a cautious skepticism. "Technology is helpful; we do a lot of data mining, and have to, in order to get to the bottom of things, to establish trends and so forth. But sometimes it can be a hindrance."

Historically, Synovus has been an acquisitive organization with a decentralized management style, essentially operating as a confederation of highly autonomous local banks. However, economic and regulatory factors have required tightening and centralization. Regulatory changes have also driven Seabolt to change her thinking about a board of directors' seat. She had contemplated serving on a board, but says that, "given the current fiduciary responsibilities--they're so tremendous--I'm not sure that is something I'd aspire to do."

Seabolt says she's "spoiled," and, as such, would never consider working at another bank (other than Synovus), and notwithstanding the stream of calls from recruiters, she does not take financial security for granted. She views herself as more financially cautious than many of her peers.

She's well aware of the continuing consolidation in her industry, and the possibility that Synovus may find itself acquired. Should she lose her current position, she envisions moving into a contract CFO role, noting that she thrives on change and fixing things. She doesn't view herself as "going around as the CFO of a public company schmoozing an analyst," but, rather "rolling up my sleeves and trying to build something from scratch."

There's no indication of such a change on the present horizon, and in the meantime, she believes that a good CFO, in general "is a do-gooder at heart." For Seabolt, a great day is one when an executive says, "Thanks, you really helped me focus, and now I know what I need to do."

Adaptable, Pragmatic CFO

Bryan Roub, 64

Senior Vice President and CFO

Harris Corp., Melbourne, Fla.

NYSE: HRS; $3 billion

International communications and technology company

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If you want to get Bryan Roub in a stir, just ask him how he feels about the rules and regulations being churned out by today's regulators.

"I think the rulemakers don't incorporate enough common sense in what they're doing," says the Harris Corp. CFO. He says the agencies need to behave more like adults and say, "Wait a minute. Let's just think about the practical ramifications before we publish this pronouncement."

He admits to being thoroughly "frustrated with the amount of wasted bureaucratic nonsense," as well as being "embarrassed for the profession of accountancy" and what it has done to itself. "It doesn't mean that they're not well-intentioned, hard-working and smart people, Roub opines. "But, they're doing work that doesn't need to be done. They appear to be folks who don't have enough to do!"

One good thing that's come out of this mess, Roub says, is that accountants are going back to being independent, really independent, "like I believe we were when I was a practicing CPA."

Roub began his career in public accounting in 1966, working with Ernst & Ernst (now Ernst & Young), until Midland-Ross Corp., a Fortune 500 client, offered him an assistant comptroller spot. He advanced to the CFO spot by the time he was 41, in 1982, and joined Harris--his third employer--where he's been CFO for the past 21 years. He's also been an active FEI member, having served as Chairman from 2000-2001.

The fundamentals of the CFO role itself haven't changed at all, Roub asserts. "You need to be calm and not quick to judgment, and you've got to be thoughtful. You have a role to play in your organization, and you've got to be a balanced person." In essence, he sees the role as "a counselor to the CEO and others--somebody they can bounce ideas off in confidence and from whom they know they'll get straight answers and honest advice." It isn't always the most popular role, he concedes. "People don't like to hear 'no.'"

What has changed, he says, is the more strategic nature of the role. "CFOs are not bean-counters," he argues, and "I don't believe that they ever were." Indeed, he points to himself and others who have continued to succeed: "We've had to be adaptable and ready to change, because over long periods of time, for example, technology has changed to make us do our jobs better and easier. You can't act like an old fogy, even if you are one," quips Roub. That's true, he says, for every field--finance, legal, engineering. "Everybody's got to be more adaptable than ever."

Roub had served on two boards of directors prior to joining Harris, positions he had to relinquish since such service was against company rules. The company has changed those rules, and Roub is a director of one public company, Fairchild Semiconductor, where he chairs the audit committee. Additional board service may be in his future when he retires next July, at age 65, in line with company policy.

One proud achievement at Harris was helping, years ago, to implement an ethics program with an elaborate internal controls system that he says "was cutting-edge then," and which hasn't needed improvement, even to conform with Sarbanes-Oxley.

Roub is optimistic about younger CFOs. While they lack years of experience, he believes that by age 40, a person should have enough experience "to know what you don't know and who to ask when you see a problem." With the role more strategic now, he says, a strong education and MBA is likely required, but the CFO doesn't necessarily need tip-top financial skills. "You can get good accounting people and treasury folks."

The successful organization, Roub says, is all about people. "You give me two good people instead of six mediocre ones, and I'll do the same amount of work, and do it better." He particularly likes hiring young people and watching them blossom into polished executives. "It's just fun to watch people develop, and a great joy to sit back and say, 'I had something to do with that.'"

Investment Banker-Turned CFO

Brett D. Heffes, 38

CFO and Treasurer

Winmark Corp., Minneapolis, Minn.

NASDAQ: WINA; $28 million, 2004 revenues

Develops franchises and provides equipment leasing solutions to small and medium-sized businesses

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"When you're 20 years younger than everyone else in the room, you have to establish credibility quickly," observes Brett D. Heffes, CFO and Treasurer of Winmark Corp. (Editor's note: Brett Heffes is the son of Executive Editor Ellen M. Heffes.) "You have to be on top of your game technically and able to overcome perception with performance," he says.

Upon graduation from Boston College in 1989, Heffes began a career in investment banking in the corporate finance division of Smith Barney in New York City. Impatient to really get his feet wet, three years later, he joined his former boss at a Minneapolis-based boutique investment banking firm, reflecting that interacting with CEOs and CFOs at so young an age was "intellectually stimulating."

But investment banking is a road-warrior's life, and when his son was born (nearly eight years ago) he swapped the frequent-flier lifestyle for one that he says has become more stable and, ultimately, more rewarding. He began as vice president of corporate development and treasurer for Department 56. Helping Heffes make that career/life decision was a former employer who, at 20 years his senior, had gone down that same path of trading the investment-banker life for that of CFO.

"If my job objective was to maximize my short-term net worth, I'd be doing something different," he explains. "I view my job as to optimize a lot of different things, one of those being time with my son." He adds, "You can't replace the time coaching your son's soccer team or the time practicing hockey with him 10 years later, because he won't be seven years old when I have more time."

At 33, Heffes moved on to his first CFO role for Applied EPI, a semiconductor-equipment company. After orchestrating the company's sale to New York-based Veeco Instruments--which offered him a position following the deal's closing--he chose to stay put, geographically, and landed the job at Winmark in 2002.

Each career move for Heffes has meant learning a new business in a new industry, with its own rules and regulations; he now has broad experience in consumer products, technology, retail and financial services. He believes his experience in investment banking "forced me to be a quick study," a skill that's been imminently useful with each new position.

Heffes comments that being CFO of a smaller company brings particular challenges. "All of the same rules apply, yet there are fewer resources and 'internal' experts sitting around the table to rely on regarding technical issues." He's astounded by the amount and perplexities of regulatory change.

But he has not let the regulatory onus deter him from board service. For five years now, Heffes has sat on the board of J. Jill Group, a Boston-based specialty retailer that had been his client during his stint as investment banker. He led the team that took the company public, and was later asked to join the board. He currently serves on the company's audit committee and nominating and governance committee. He believes his board service has helped him become a better CFO. "I have a greater appreciation for what the people on the other side of the table are looking for."

For the future, Heffes sees the possibility of more board service as a way to ease into retirement without giving up the challenge of full-time work. But that future is distant, as he expects to spend the next several decades in a CFO role that continues to evolve.

Of today's CFO, he comments: "You're a lot more visible, and I think people are more aware of the risk. You're not just adding up the shekels, but rather giving more color and a qualitative view of what is happening, not only what has happened in the past but what will happen in the next 12 months." The most interesting aspect of the CFO role, Heffes believes, and the most critical, is to be what he calls "a beacon for good governance. It's a huge responsibility."

The Marathon CFO

Gordon Khan, 62

Senior Vice President and CFO

Hunter Douglas Inc., Saddle River, N.J.

Trades on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange $1.2 billion in revenue

North American manufacturer and distributor of window coverings

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Landing his first CFO job at 42, Gordon Khan said it was different from what he'd expected. "I thought that having technical skills and mastering financial accounting and reporting would be the tools required to perform well." He found other skills were also required: team-building, selling (ideas to management), managing change and dealing with organizational politics.

"The technical skills are the easy part; the people and change skills, supposedly 'soft skills,' are the hard part," he says. They are "harder to learn and harder to be successful at."

As CFO, he says, peer managers and subordinates look to you for guidance, leadership and recognition. Another key skill is the ability to delegate to those you've selected, and give the power to your people.

Khan was awarded a full scholarship to study business administration in Canada, and was required to return to his native country--British Guiana (now Guyana)--to aid its development. At graduation, with huge changes in the political landscape at home, he remained in Canada and began his career in the audit department of Arhur Andersen in Toronto; within five years, he was an audit manager serving various clients.

A client, The Kendall Co., a Colgate-Palmolive subsidiary, tapped him as controller. He later held the positions of subsidiary General Manager in Canada and CFO of Kendall International in Boston. Then, following a leveraged buyout (LBO) of Kendall, he joined York International's Unitary Products Group, another LBO.

In the 1988-90 timeframe, when LBOs became popular, he says he learned the most in his career as a financial manager. Without that experience, he says, "I don't think I'd be as useful as CFO."

Khan has served on one private company board, and would welcome the opportunity to serve again--perhaps in retirement. But he warns, "It would have to be a company that fulfills certain ethical qualifications." His company has no retirement policy, and he plans to work "as long as they want me here and I'm enjoying the work."

There's no denying the impact technology has had on the profession "compared to the tools we had 30 years ago," Khan says. When he arrived at Hunter Douglas in 1997, the company was facing the Y2K issue and had to decide whether to invest in an enterprise-wide computer system, which seemed "a horrendous investment that could not be justified financially." It was done for strategic reasons, and now, five years later, he says, "It's the best thing we ever did."

To blow off steam, Khan enjoys running and cycling. Running for over 30 years (including 26 marathons, around the world), he's completed at least one marathon in his 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. On long runs, he says, "I can think through a problem and get to the solution easier than sitting at a desk."

Khan sees a "dangerous detriment to the profession" in CFOs being pressured to partner with the CEO. In doing so, he believes, CFOs lose their primary responsibility of being the company's conscience and the person vouching for the numbers. "They've now become like the CEO, promising unattainable over-performance to the public, and there's no one fulfilling the role of independent devil's advocate."

This new public face of the CFO, he believes, was forced through pressure from the investment community that management should be owners of the company. With CEOs and CFOs able to acquire substantial equity within their companies, many CFOs have lost their impartiality. Further, he believes the accounting scandals are largely due to this temptation for the CEO and CFO to manage the numbers "as an easy route to wealth accumulation."

Khan believes the profession has hit a "speed bump," but that the pendulum is moving back in the right direction, as evidenced by the jail terms levied on the rogue CEO/CFOs.

Designing CFO

Wendy DiCicco, 38

CFO, Kensey Nash Corp., Exton, Pa.

NASDAQ: KNSY; $61.4 million, June 2005 revenues

Designs, develops and manufacturers medical devices for the orthopaedic and cardiovascular health care markets

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Wendy DiCicco's original career goal was to become an interior designer. She majored in interior design in college before switching to accounting and joining the audit firm of Deloitte & Touche. That may seem like a massive jump, but DiCicco doesn't see it that way. Interior design and finance, she says, require both a close focus on detail and an ability to see the big picture.

DiCicco, who is a CPA, became familiar with the Kensey Nash account through Deloitte, and was invited to join the company as controller in 1996 when it went public. Founded in 1984, Kensey Nash makes medical implants used in bone grafts, cardiovascular therapies and other applications. At 28 years old then, she was one of the younger executives at the young company; two years later, she was promoted to CFO.

DiCicco recalls that early on, when the company was smaller, she wore lot of hats. "I was always involved in, and sometimes even running, production meetings, production planning ... the focus was extremely operational, in additional to financial. I loved that." She laments that the past couple of years' "regulatory focus" has been a headache. "All the rules and regulations take away from your ability to focus on what the business is." She's hopeful that will change.

She expresses a great deal of interest in the broad spectrum of the business. Indeed, DiCicco's favorite part of being CFO is not the number-crunching but, rather, "the business that results in the numbers." DiCicco opines that 20 years ago, the CFO role was much more limited to running the numbers of the company, the budget, the plan, cost analysis, auditors and all that good stuff, but much less involved in the operational side. She's been asked by older CFOs, "Why are you getting yourself involved in that?" But, she says, for her, it's all that "that makes the job worthwhile."

DiCicco and her physician husband have two children (ages 4 and 2). At times, she notes, her job can actually be "less challenging than managing her work-life balance." She truly enjoys her job and concedes it takes effort to focus adequately on managing the balance. "It just all has to fit."

She sometimes squeezes out a bit of quality time with her children during the workday, thanks to having their day care center in the same corporate park as her office. "My lunch break is the gym; if I can push the kids two miles to the ice cream store (in their double-stroller), I get my workout and they get to spend time with mom."

While regulations and compliance are time-consuming burdens, a more persistent challenge, says DiCicco, comes from Wall Street. Biotechnology companies can take a while to gain traction, but Kensey Nash succeeded relatively quickly and found that the greatest challenge of success can be the need to meet investor demands for an encore.

"We were profitable three years after we went public," she explains. "Now the earnings expectations are there, and we are held to some pretty high expectations." She says it's difficult sometimes "to run your business for 10 years from now, when analysts are demanding something tomorrow."

Technology helps; it plays a huge role in efficiency and ability to do the job. "You can look at numbers when you need to, you can model 10 different scenarios at the same time," DiCicco says. It's different from writing numbers on green paper--as she did at her first job (when computers weren't yet standard equipment). Now, she admits to being an extreme Excel user, and her company just implemented Oracle to enhance the company's enterprise resource planning (ERP) capabilities.

But more important than technology, she argues, is the human factor. When she started at Kensey Nash, DiCicco says there were only three people in her department. As the company has grown, she's been able to recruit great people, who've "stuck around and are phenomenal." Bottom line, she says, "You're only as good as the people you surround yourself with, and I've got a fantastic team!"