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Finance leader Betsy Ward wants you to know that she doesn\u2019t have an itchy trigger finger\u2014but she does have an inner trigger and knows when it\u2019s been set off.

There\u2019s no doubt that few professional colleagues would ever think to associate the time-tested gunslinger trope with the exponentially mild-mannered Ward, who has led insurance giant MassMutual through a string of strategic transactions since her arrival in its CFO office in 2016.

Still, as Ward seeks to help us to better understand the unique mix of skills that distinguishes her from her CFO peers, her words alert us to a confidence that comes from experience not found on a more traditional corporate finance resume.  

\u201cI have a trigger that lets me know when I need to look into something and ask myself \u2018Do we keep that? Do I need to manage it? Do I need to sell?,\u2019\u201d explains Ward, who spent 10 years in asset management before joining MassMutual in 2007 as chief risk officer.

\u201cI\u2019ve always looked at outcomes\u2014baseline outcomes, which in finance we typically call \u2018the plan\u2019\u2014but I\u2019ve always considered scenarios, too,\u201d comments Ward, whose list of recent transactions includes the acquisition of Great American Life Insurance Company (now MassMutual Ascend) and the combination of OppenheimerFunds with Invesco in 2019.

Ward\u2019s team uses a variety of metrics to bring different scenarios into sharper focus.    

\u201cWe asked ourselves what it would take to make our retirement business not only perform well but also be more scalable, and here\u2019s where our productivity metrics really came into play,\u201d recalls Ward, highlighting MassMutual\u2019s headline-grabbing decision to sell its retirement business to Empower in 2020.

According to MassMutual\u2019s CFO, finance provides her organization not so much with advice as with a \u201cthesis\u201d for guiding business decision-making.   

Says Ward: \u201cI think that what my background brings to the financial side is this scenario type of analysis, as well as the notion of having a thesis for businesses, for assets, and for products.\u201d \u2013Jack Sweeney