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When Drew Vollero arrived in the CFO office of Snap (formerly Snapchat) in 2015, the executives occupying the tech world\u2019s traditional IPO talent bench no doubt raised a few eyebrows.

Having spent the previous 25 years inside the corporate corridors of Mattel, Inc., and PepsiCo, Vollero had a resume chock-full of strategic planning initiatives that any finance leader would covet. Still, he could not be counted among the familiar CFO\xa0all-stars\xa0known for their routine rotation into IPO-minded tech companies.

Of course, whatever buzz Vollero\u2019s hiring may have stirred, Snap left no room for IPO skeptics, having earlier in 2015 hired Imran Khan, head of Internet investment banking at Credit Suisse, where he had recently led the IPO for Chinese e-commerce giant\xa0Alibaba.

\u201cWhenever we walked into a room together\u2014on the road show or wherever\u2014there were seven or eight people who knew Imran,\u201d explains Vollero, who characterizes his pairing with Khan as \u201ca one, two punch.\u201d

\u201cThe founders knew that I had experience in building world-class teams, and they knew that I could hit the ground running,\u201d comments Vollero, who adds that \u201cthe match really made sense\u201d in light of the tight time frame involved in Snap\u2019s plans to go public.

During the 18 months in the lead-up to the IPO, Vollero initially committed to a 70-mile commute to Snap\u2019s Venice, Calif., headquarters from his home of 30 years in Orange County\u2014a daily trek that became more daunting as IPO action items began pressing down. \xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0

Says Vollero: \u201cI got an apartment up in Los Angeles, and I was there Sunday through Friday, moving the things that we had to get done.\u201d

These days, Vollero has been working closer to home while occupying the CFO office at Allied Universal of Santa Ana, Calif. \xa0Despite his shorter commute, Vollero says, his days are once again becoming populated with IPO action items, as the $8 billion privately held supplier of security and facilities begins eyeing the public markets. \xa0

Comments the CFO and now\xa0IPO veteran: \u201cWe\u2019re a founder-led company, just as Snap was founder-led\u2014these companies tend to take on the personalities of the founder, and they drive hard.\u201d \xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney\xa0 Signup for our Newsletter