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Space is not typically the realm that CFOs point to when we ask about experiences that prepared them for a finance leadership role.

However, the first 10 years of Alex Amezquita\u2019s professional life frequently involved celestial spaces.

\u201cI was an engineer and chip designer, and some of those chips are floating around space on satellites right now, as we speak,\u201d explains Amezquita, who served in a succession of senior chip designer roles before returning to graduate school for an MBA.

\u201cAs a designer, it\u2019s all about problem-solving, or, \u2018How do I get from point A to point B in a very structured way?,'\u201d comments Amezquita, before making a thoughtful comparison between chip design and finance. \xa0

\u201cFinance leadership is about taking unstructured information and figuring out how to make it fit into a budget or P&L or message that we can share with the public or our management team or operators,\u201d continues Amezquita, whose post-MBA career has largely been spent inside the investment banking realm\u2019s mergers and acquisitions wing.

\u201cThese sets of problems often involve human capital and transactions and \xa0\u2018How do you arrive at a solution that works for both buyers and sellers?,\u2019\u201d observes Amezquita, who, shortly after joining investment banking firm Moelis & Company, acquired Herbalife Nutrition as a client back in 2012.

Looking back, Amezquita says that his advisor role allowed him to become a Herbalife \u201cbusiness partner,\u201d which in turn found him beginning to observe more closely the Herbalife team\u2019s approach to strategic decision-making. \xa0\xa0\xa0

\u201cI got to see how they managed the company in various situations and how they worked together as a team, so for me it was like being on a 5-year interview in reverse,\u201d recalls Amezquita, who in 2017 joined Herbalife by accepting a finance position that the company dubbed \u201csecond to the CFO.\u201d \xa0

\u201cThere were no promises made about the CFO role, but I jumped at the opportunity. I just felt that from where the company had come and where it was headed, I could learn from the CFO,\u201d reports Amezquita, who 3 years later would step into the CFO role himself.\xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney

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