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Twenty-five to 30 years ago, senior executives seeking CFO roles did not think like Tom Tuchscherer.

Many still don\u2019t, which is why CFO roles have increasingly come to executives like Tuchscherer, a gate crasher from the world of corporate development.

Such was the case back in 2012, when Tuchscherer entered the CFO office for the first time at Talend, a fast-growing developer of data integration software.

At the time, Tuchscherer was accustomed to having long strategy discussions with both Talend investors and board members and was even tasked with helping management to recruit \u201ca professional\u201d CFO.

However, when a new CFO exited the company only 12 months after being recruited, Tuchscherer agreed to serve as an interim finance leader. \xa0

\u201cFirst it was 3 months, then 6 months, then 9 months, and then a year. Eventually, the board said, \u2018Hey, you seem to be doing a good job with this\u2014why don\u2019t you just stay?,\u2019\u201d explains Tuchscherer, who characterizes his arrival in the CFO office as an \u201caccident\u201d rather than a \u201cwillful choice.\u201d

In fact, as time passed and Talend began preparing for its IPO, Tuchscherer says his career mind-set remained untethered to the CFO role.

\u201cHad I been in a board member\u2019s shoes, I would have thought that this was pretty dangerous,\u201d explains Tuchscherer, who says that during some \u201chonest discussions\u201d with the company\u2019s CEO and board members, he made clear his willingness to step aside and even to help recruit a CFO with IPO experience.

\u201cEssentially, the message that came back was: \u2018We value the relationships that you built and your strategic knowledge of the company much more than the downside of your lack of experience as a public company CFO, and we believe that you can grow and learn those skills \u2026 but we will be keeping a close eye,\u2019\u201d recalls Tuchscherer, who notes that by this time he had learned to appease his sizable appetite for high-minded strategy insights\u2014a source of sustenance for many corporate development executives\u2014in order to better digest the company\u2019s accounting and administrative functions.

Looking back, Tuchscherer recalls that his \u201caccidental\u201d arrival inside the CFO office in some ways allowed him to be more clear-eyed about the role of finance leadership.

Comments Tuchscherer: \u201cIt forced me to ask a lot of questions and to challenge the role and reinvent it at the same time.\u201d\xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney\xa0 \xa0Subscribe to our Newsletter