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In 2008, as the economic downturn threatened to upend IBM Corp.\u2019s financial well-being, the company\u2019s leadership was considering different candidates to lead a corporatewide restructuring when Kieran McGrath\u2019s name surfaced.

McGrath was known as a troubleshooter inside the ranks of IBMers, a seasoned finance executive whose 27 years with the company had produced a zigzag career trajectory tracing a jagged path that signaled to IBM insiders both a breadth of experience and company loyalty.

\u201cEarly in my career, I got a reputation as a workhorse and a bit of a problem fixer, and while this was positive in the long haul, it did not always seem that way at the time,\u201d explains McGrath, who says that he was 10 years into his career with IBM when \u201cspecial assignments\u201d began regularly populating the path before him.

\u201cI was constantly getting pushed out of my comfort zone because I was never able to stay in any one space too long,\u201d says McGrath, whose IBM resume included tours of duty inside the technology realms of storage technologies, semiconductors, and global technology services.

McGrath was offered the restructuring assignment, and, as usual, he accepted the invitation.

\u201cThis was really tough work because you\u2019re really forcing decisions as you try to push along a restructuring in response to economic realities,\u201d recalls McGrath, who\u2014while in midstream of a restructuring gig that he hoped would last only 6 months\u2014suddenly found himself being approached by IBM\u2019s leadership with yet another opportunity.

Says McGrath: \u201cAs luck would have it, the restructuring role became temporary because the CFO of IBM software at that time decided to leave the company for another opportunity.\u201d

McGrath was shortly named finance leader for the company\u2019s $25 billion software business, a demanding and high-profile leadership role both inside and outside the company.

\u201cClearly, I would never have been the CFO of CA Technologies or today the CFO of Avaya if I had not taken up many of these other experiences and gone down these side roads,\u201d explains McGrath, who would leave IBM after nearly 33 years in 2014, when he joined CA Technologies.

He continues: \u201cThis is kind of how I was raised\u2014to be a little accepting of things coming my way, because there would always be opportunity associated with them.\u201d\xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney\xa0

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