©Jerry Kalyniuk Martha Dustin Boudos '02

A wealth of experience
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Maner is undaunted by the complexity of the task.

"Some companies make widgets; our mission is to stop terrorism. It's the same approach: prioritize and put in financial management policies that make us more effective," he says.

Maner's path to the CFO suite was anything but linear. His first few post-college jobs, though government-related, had little to do with finance. He landed a job in the White House press office fresh out of Purdue University after sending "a letter a day for 40 days" to Marlin Fitzwater, press secretary to then-President George H.W. Bush. After the 1992 election, Bush sought Maner's help in setting up his private office in Houston. Maner followed that with a stint in Somalia helping to coordinate the United Nations aid effort in 1993.

Maner then moved into the private sector, working in marketing and communications at the Chicago Board of Trade before enrolling at Kellogg in 1995. After graduating with degrees in finance and marketing, he helped found Aligne, Inc., an outsourcing advisory firm. After that, Maner ran a $120 million fund-raising effort and later sales for ICG Commerce, a supply-chain services provider.

Maner was drawn back to government after Sept. 11. The Bush administration "needed good people, and I wanted to come back and do something with the war on terrorism," he says. He was named chief of staff of U.S. Customs, overseeing 20,000 employees and a $3.2 billion budget.

When the agency was combined with Immigration and Naturalization Services and several other departments, Maner was asked to oversee the merger and integration process. His skill at coordinating that 42,000-employee effort led directly to his appointment as CFO at the Department of Homeland Security.

Maner feels well-prepared for new leadership opportunities --- within government and beyond.

"I can't wait to get back into the private sector, but I'll always be drawn back to the challenges of government management throughout my career," Maner says. "I think you can have a great career doing both."

A nontraditional CFO: Martha Dustin Boudos '02
When Morningstar Inc. founder, chairman and CEO Joe Mansueto launched a search for the company's new CFO, he put Martha Dustin Boudos in charge of it.

Boudos was well-placed to offer input on the selection process. She had been with the company for 10 years in a variety of positions, the latest as head of human resources. Mansueto and Boudos reviewed numerous applicants for the job, many of whom had followed traditional paths in accounting and finance.

Most of the applicants were "incredibly smart people, but they didn't know a lot about our business," Boudos recalls. As the search continued, Boudos and Mansueto sharpened their focus on the top qualification for the job: "an ability to understand our numbers to help deliver results."

"We really wrestled with finding the right person for that role," Boudos says. "Ultimately, Joe said he wanted a CFO who really understood the business, rather than someone who would just be a terrific accountant."

That person turned out to be Boudos, whose well-rounded rèsumè, Kellogg School MBA and lengthy tenure at Morningstar eclipsed the fact that she did not have a traditional finance background.

After years spent working to develop budgets and deliver on the numbers, Boudos had acquired a fluency in finance that surpassed anything obtainable in a classroom. The experience she had gained as a Morningstar employee, which included projects such as revamping the company's employee stock option plans, didn't hurt either.

"The fact is that Morningstar is substantially a finance- and investment-focused company, and this is what we all do here," Boudos says. "If I'd been at, say, a biotech company, moving to finance might have felt like a much bigger change."

Boudos joined the company in 1992 and spent eight years as a manager in a succession of departments: marketing, product development, business development, retirement services and finally human resources. She earned her MBA while working for the company, attending The Managers' Program in the evenings while leading various teams by day.

"The most eye-opening thing about this position is that it really is about who you have in place and how they're doing their jobs," she says. "It's not just closing the books. It's a management job, within a quantitative, numbers-oriented context."

Among her top concerns these days: handling the plethora of issues arising from the company's plans to go public. Chief among these is the need to ensure that Morningstar is in compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The post-Enron legislation requires CEOs and CFOs at public companies to establish adequate internal controls and take responsibility for the accuracy of corporate financial statements. Penalties for failing to comply include personal fines and jail time.

Boudos acknowledges that the law will compound her responsibilities, but says she's ready to deal with the added pressure. "This is the environment we live in," she says. "We'll comply with the law and move on to other challenges."

Photo courtesty of TIAA-CREF Scott Evans '85

Investing for the educational community: Scott Evans '85
When Scott Evans accepted a position at TIAA-CREF straight out of Kellogg, he never expected he'd still be there nearly 20 years later.

Like many of his classmates, Evans figured he would climb the career ladder by moving from firm to firm, eventually becoming a money manager "at a more exciting place." TIAA-CREF, which manages investments for educators and researchers, seemed to be a stable, nonprofit organization that would provide Evans with solid training before he moved on.

What Evans discovered, however, was an unparalleled lifelong opportunity to develop his finance skills—and a deep sense of satisfaction.

"TIAA-CREF is a really special place," says Evans, now the company's chief investment officer. "It's one of the few places in the financial profession where you can be at a leading firm and also feel a strong sense of alignment with the interests of those whom you serve. Since we are not-for-profit, there's no conflict between the needs and interests of the customers and those of the shareholders.

"It's not hard to find passion for the job once you realize that you work for the very educators who gave you the tools to practice your craft. I know it sounds kind of corny, but there's a clarity of purpose that permeates this place and gives us a little extra motivation. It keeps people at the firm who otherwise might have wandered off into other, more-visible parts of the financial world."

Evans joined the company in 1985 as an equity analyst, covering the metals industry. "It was kind of a dull group of companies that no one wanted to follow, so they gave them to the new kid," he recalls.

The timing turned out to be fortuitous, and Evans was able to capitalize on a turn in the pricing cycle, making profits in a group that had been given up for dead. "That experience taught me to look closely at things that no one wants," he says. Following his success with metals, Evans was soon assigned to cover chemical and media companies as well.

In 1991, Evans became a portfolio manager, joining the small-cap growth team within TIAA-CREF's flagship stock account. The portfolio segment grew to $800 million, and based on the team's success, the company decided in 1994 to create the CREF Growth Account, with Evans at the helm. The success of that fund led to Evans' appointment as head of equities in 1997.

"I went from an investment professional to a manager of people. That was a big transition," Evans says. "I suddenly had a staff of 200, causing me to scramble for all my Kellogg training in managing people and organizations."

This year, Evans was named chief investment officer, overseeing some $300 billion in assets. Not only have his responsibilities expanded, but the company is also restructuring its workforce and overhauling its systems to better serve the educational community. "I have a lot to keep me challenged right now," he says.

In the midst of such upheaval, Evans finds he relies frequently on his business-school training. "When I came to TIAA-CREF, I had the capacity to work with all kinds of people and all kinds of problems," he says. "The foundation for that was set at Kellogg."