What's the best path to become a CFO? What was your path?

Here was my path...started out working at a big 4 firm doing IT and controls audits. Took a job as an internal auditor at a client who's industry I liked. Jumped to a competitor as an internal auditor. Took an opportunity to become an assistant controller at the same company. Then became an assistant controller at yet another company. Jumped yet to another company to become a controller and got promoted to CFO (stayed almost 8 years at that firm). Recently left that company to become a CFO of another company. As you can see, it took me a lot of jumping in the beginning, but the end goal was in mind on each of the moves. All of the moves were upward bound or an increase in knowledge base.

One thing I might have done was stay in Big 4 a little longer to get SEC reporting experience. Going from private companies to public companies in the capacity of a controller/CFO seems to be more difficult without that experience.

In addition, I do have a CPA. At one point I let it lapse for 10 years since I never needed it, however, I don't suggest that. I got it reinstated, which is a pain, and it opens more looks when you can say you have an active CPA.

I also remained in the same industry. Not sure if it matters or not, but as hard as it is I enjoy all capacities of the construction industry. Pay is meh compared to things like the software industry, but it is really interesting. It might help that I find my industry specialization very interesting.

I lead the finance & accounting organization for several private companies, so there are certain things I don't get involved with. For instance, the owners prefer to make their own capital structure decisions. That aside, I'll try to provide some helpful perspective based on my experience.

I spent the early years of my career with a multi-national technology/manufacturing firm with a gigantic finance organization. This allowed me to rotate into various positions about every 15-18 months. Looking back on that experience now I realize how valuable it was to be able to get a lot of varied experiences in a relatively short period of time. Opportunities like that may be rare but are worth looking for.

There are certain areas of experience you will need, so the best path will depend a lot on what you've already done in the past. Marc pointed out SEC reporting which is key. Experience with Sarbanes Oxley/audit/internal controls, FP&A, investor relations and revenue/cost accounting (depending on industry) are all important to have a shot at being CFO of a public company. Getting these experiences may require you to jump from company to company to fill in gaps.

Perhaps the most important element I believe companies look for is successful experience partnering with a business unit to drive revenue growth and/or cost savings. In a role like that you will need to constantly be reevaluating processes to become more efficient, challenging spending to find opportunities to drive savings and keeping an open mind about everything. To me, this is the fun stuff!

Good luck on your path!

Corporate Controller Trainee
Operations Accounting Supervisor
Plant Controller
Multi-Plant Controller
Regional Business Analyst
Director of Business Analysis
Division Controller
Sr. Director of Business Analysis
VP - Financial Planning and Analysis
CFO

Education: MBA
Certificatons: None

I started in public accounting - income/payroll/sales taxes, bookkeeping, attestation. I developed an unusually deep level of expertise with the software and started turning my attention to management accounting - business intelligence, cash flow forecasting, and the like. I also got coaching training. 10 years later, I became the CFO of my own fractional CFO firm.

After getting my MBA, started out and stayed in FP&A until I became CFO. Got my CPA along the way.

The above answers are all great, pearls in each, which highlights there's no one path (as there once may have been). Make sure you have a mentor/champion & build a strong network. Assuming you have the requisite skills described above, you're most likely to be given that first CFO role by someone that knows you well or is relying on a recommendation from someone they trust.

MBA from top 20 school
Finance Mgr. for subsidiary of a global behemoth (2.5 years)
FP&A (Mgr. level) for a super-regional bank (3 years)
Owner of a small international telecom firm (4 years)
Finance/Operations Director for a $400 million international telecom firm (2.5 years)
Operations Director for a small telecom consulting firm (2 years)
FP&A (Sr. Mgr.) for a $1 billion telecom firm (2.5 years)
Accounting/Finance Consulting for global consulting firm (4 years) [earned CMA during this period as a certification of my accounting skills]
VP Finance/CFO for 3 firms owned by a PE firm (almost 5 years)
Finance Director for global entertainment firm (1 year)
CFO of a $130+ million CPG firm (2 years)

More finance than accounting but a solid grounding in accounting. I consider myself unqualified to be CFO of a publicly-traded firm because of the lack of SEC-reporting. Lots of operations experience. Some M&A experience. Some banking experience.