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Back in the early 2000s, Catherine Birkett found herself being pulled into confidential meetings where her company\u2019s senior management was discussing restructuring plans with the company\u2019s largest investor.

The company\u2014a fiber optics telecom firm known as Interoute\u2014was not yet 6 years old, but its days appeared to be numbered as the company sought to weather the telecom industry\u2019s historic collapse.\xa0\xa0

As Interoute\u2019s top FP&A executive, Birkett knew from the ongoing business plan\u2019s numbers that massive changes were urgently needed, and she as well as others were not optimistic about the restructuring options available to the company.

In fact, Birkett recalls, she and many executives had to tamp down the feeling that \u201cthis was not going to end well.\u201d

From a career perspective, Birkett arguably had less at risk than the other more senior executives sitting ringside during the restructuring discussions. Not yet 30 years of age, she joined the discussions knowing perhaps that other more gainful career opportunities were available to her outside Interoute\u2019s four walls.

Nonetheless, she had been given a seat at the meetings out of recognition of not just her ability to recite numbers but also her grasp of the intellectual property that governed the numbers.\xa0

\u201cI owned the business plan,\u201d Birkett explains. \xa0

In the end, the company\u2019s multiyear restructuring allowed Interoute to find a new path to growth while operating under a new management team\u2014one that included the 32-year-old Birkett as CFO.

\u201cI was thrown into the deep end as a finance leader\u2014I basically had to learn on the job,\u201d recalls Birkett, who entered Interoute\u2019s CFO office in 2003 and went on to serve in the role for the next 15 years. \xa0

\u201cWe managed to transform the company,\u201d says Birkett. Along the way, Interoute marched in step with a new private equity firm owner and closed a string acquisitions. Ultimately, the company was sold to GTT Communications in 2018 for $2.3 billion.

\u201cBeing promoted so young, I definitely made mistakes,\u201d admits Birkett, who credits her CEO and other members of senior management for standing behind her as she ran at breakneck speed to acquire the skills necessary to manage a quickly expanding finance team. \u2013Jack Sweeney