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Dennis McGrath was only recently married and a new home owner when he was invited to a Phillies game by the CFO of AC Manufacturing.

At the time, McGrath was working for Andersen as an auditor of a roster of growing companies, among which AC\u2014a maker of industrial air-conditioning units\u2014was perhaps not the most glamorous.

\u201cAt the end of the night, the CFO told me that he wanted to hire me and would pay me a lot more than I was then making,\u201d recalls McGrath, who doesn\u2019t hesitate to reveal what allowed AC\u2019s offer to trump all other opportunities.

Says McGrath: \u201cI went for the money.\u201d

However, what distinguished McGrath\u2019s AC career chapter was neither compensation nor, for that matter, a lengthy tenure (McGrath was controller for 22 months).

Adds McGrath: \u201cIt was not too long before the owner decided that he was going to sell the company and had a private equity group come in.\u201d \xa0

Still in his mid-20s, McGrath took a seat across the table from a seasoned group of private equity executives.

\u201cFor me, my career has just kind of been perpetuated from there in terms of deal-making,\u201d explains McGrath, who has arguably occupied \u201cthe seat\u201d from that day forward, guaranteeing \xa0a CFO career chock full of M&A deal-making. \xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney