It is funny that even to establish the right date with something that has an SEC filing and a press release can be a little difficult, but when the action happened in Asia, it could happen on one date and be recorded in the SEC system on another.
So there is an SEC filing on August 4th, 2004 that has a press release dated August 5th announcing that the merger between STATS and ChipPAC had been completed. That press release has a quote from Michael G. Potter, Chief Financial Officer.
That is the date that I became the CFO of a public company for the first time. So 20 years ago today or tomorrow using the time where I was when it happened.
Interesting for me as well is that about 8 years of that has been for foreign private issuers. One a Singapore company (STATS ChipPAC) that was also listed on the Singapore Exchange. The other for a Canadian company (Canadian Solar) who had an admin HQ in China so I worked in Suzhou and lived in Shanghai.
I had been the acting CFO of ChipPAC before the merger and before I joined ChipPAC as their Controller I had been acting CFO of a $1B revenue SBU of AlliedSignal/Honeywell. But acting is not being the CFO. And an SBU is not the top job for the company.
During my time as CFO, I have done quite a few acquisitions and some divestitures. I have done a large variety of quite large equity and debt transactions (IPO, secondaries, converts, high yield debt, CLO for M&A, bank loans (Term A and B) and all sorts of equipment leasing and project financing. Even tax equity financing.
I have done banking and investor relations across North America, Europe and Asia. In the USA, I was CFO in the Silicon Valley area and Portland, Oregon. Had good years and not so good.
I also have been a fractional or temporary CFO and that was fun and rewarding as well.
When I get asked what does it take to be a successful CFO, I can give an answer around being strategic and taking your area of expertise to the executive team and help lead the company. That is a true answer and what CFOs do. But not what sustains you over time.
What I really remember is the hours and hours working with my staff(s) all over the world. I have had 6 different people that were part of my staff make it to be CFO of public companies, so somewhere is all that work and selection of hires and promoting I must have been doing something right, but most of it is setting a North Star for the team and letting the natural effort and skill of people in your team shine through. I always look forward to going into work and seeing my team and that is as true as ever with my current team.
I managed to make it to CFO at a somewhat young age so I hope to have more than just a 20 year post to make, and I have served on one public company board and several others over the year (and am on a large renewable energy developer’s board now). I imagine that I will start doing more of that soon enough.
If you are interested in some of my observations of being a CFO during the years, I do have a blog at mgpotter.com where I posted a series of articles. I hope to make video content for those articles as that seems to be the leading way to communicate today and I have great gear that my current company makes. As always, I will teach myself to do that just like I have been experimenting with AI to keep current (ollama) and I have been running a small online business to try and learn the skills needed there.