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Looking back to the mid-1980s, Larry Angelilli knows now that he was at the time witnessing something that others would not see for decades. Before Jack Welch declared war on \u201cgreen eyeshade\u201d auditors or Indra Nooyi endowed Pepsico with a strategic finance function or conference promoters added the edgy words \u201cThe Changing Role of the CFO\u201d to their event agendas, Angelilli was sitting courtside, observing the game-changing moves of Chrysler Corp. CFO Steve Miller.

Angelilli\u2014a banker then in his late 20s\u2014had joined Chrysler Financial Corp. shortly after CFO Miller had arranged for loans from hundreds of banks under a government-insured loan program that would permit Chrysler to avoid bankruptcy\u2014a feat that helped Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca to later achieve icon status.

\u201cAt the time, Miller wanted to populate the finance team with bankers and people who knew credit risk and understood what could go wrong in the type of cyclical business that Chrysler was in,\u201d explains Angelilli, who credits Miller with having had a survival instinct that enabled Chrysler to navigate the ups and downs of America\u2019s auto manufacturing sector in the 1980s.

Recalls Angelilli: \u201cWhen Chrysler began to have trouble again, Miller became that pivotal person who had a strategy. It had everything to do with managing the balance sheet, generating liquidity, and picking winners and losers.\u201d\xa0\xa0 \xa0

\xa0In short, Angelilli describes Miller as \u201cprobably the best CFO in the United States\u201d at that time.

\u201cI was a junior guy, working in M&A and asset-backed securities, but he showed us what was possible for the CFO role,\u201d comments Angelilli, who notes that Miller was \u201ctotally plugged in to strategy and connected to the CEO.\u201d

Still, Angelilli says, Miller\u2019s calm demeanor was what perhaps made him an exceptional CFO.

\u201cWe\u2019d be going through this epic change as a company and everyone would be nervous, and here was this incredibly calm person with a steady hand,\u201d remarks Angelilli, who further compliments Miller as being \u201cfriendly and warm.\u201d

Says Angelilli: \u201cIf business were a democracy and you could vote for your CFO, Miller would have gotten 100 percent of the vote.\u201d\xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney