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Perhaps, unlike most of her professional peers, when Bea Ordonez first interviewed for a CFO role, she got the job. At the time, perhaps no one was more surprised than Ordonez, whose finance resume\u2014while impressive for a 26-year-old\u2014still lacked a number of C-suite prerequisites.

Twenty years later, she still resides in the C-Suite, having filled a number of consecutive CFO and COO roles over the years.

Nonetheless, she credits her first CFO tour of duty with having opened the door for everything that has followed.

\u201cOn paper, at least, I was woefully underqualified for the job. I interviewed, landed the role, and then worked really, really hard to learn the business from the ground up,\u201d says Ordonez, whose first CFO stint was with a joint venture originally formed with Bloomberg Tradebook known as G-Trade. Located on the island of Bermuda, the broker-dealer start-up no doubt found Ordonez an attractive hire in part because she was at the time an island resident.

Still, for all of those trying to decode shortcuts to the C-suite or uncover a coveted secret behind becoming a 26-year-old CFO, we\u2019d wager that Ordonez\u2019s words \u201cworked really, really hard\u201d perhaps best reveal her world of both today and 20 years ago.

As G-Trade grew, Ordonez became tasked with quickly adding talent to help answer the organization\u2019s growing demand for financial and operational support.

\u201cWe were providing support for trading activities across close to 90 global markets and at the same time building a culture and creating a work ethic that even to this day I am very proud of,\u201d recalls Ordonez, while once more drawing our attention to her unwavering appetite for the work itself.

\u201cAt times in my career, I didn\u2019t have any personal life, and what time I did have, I used for sleeping,\u201d confides Ordonez, who adds that today\u2014more than ever before\u2014she is achieving a positive work/life balance. \u2013Jack Sweeney