Why the Accidental CFO?

Why the Accidental CFO?

People ask me why I jokingly refer to myself as the accidental CFO.

If you look at most CFO job descriptions, they say “CPA required” or at least “CPA desired”. The textbook CFO career path is:

• graduate with a bachelor’s degree in accounting
• go work for the big 6 (or is it 4 now, I cannot keep track)
• work in audit
• take (and of course pass) the CPA exam
• continue to work in an accounting firm for years and years
• get an MBA in finance at night from a top school
• leave the accounting firm for a private company as a controller
• get promoted to CFO as part of normal succession planning

Does anybody know anyone whose career path was this smooth and predictable? Not anymore. But companies and recruiters persistently look for this holy grail.

Do you get the feeling that I don’t fit the mold?

• I have an engineering bachelor’s degree.
• I tried taking an introductory accounting class in college. I got an A+ but was bored out of my gourd. I guess that accounting class in high school helped. That is when I switched to engineering.
• I have never worked as an accountant and I don’t have a CPA
• I have an MBA from a top school – but it is a general management degree

So…how did I become a CFO?

In 2005, after 6 years in the Venture Capital/Private Equity industry, I found myself in career transition. A friend of mine was the CEO of a company that had almost won a $7M contract. He needed help. I had been on the board of directors of his company for several years. So…I agreed to help. We won the contract. It ended up being a >$10M project. But now I needed a title. We decided on CFO…the rest is history.

The Accidental CFO.