BROADCASTS.com

Jim Moylan is perhaps our first CFO guest to list the leasing of oil rigs as one of the experiences that best prepared him for a CFO role. Of course, he makes it clear that the experience is worthy of mention not so much because of\xa0what\xa0he was selling but because he was selling\xa0at all.

\u201cThe best way to learn what a company does and understand its value proposition is to be a salesperson, and I have told this to people everywhere that I\u2019ve been,\u201d comments Moylan, whose stint as a salesman helped to kick off a 22-year career climb inside the ever-evolving world of energy company Sonat, Inc.

Sonat would provide Moylan with an expansive and varied career narrative. Having become known inside the company for his FP&A savvy, Moylan had a tenure that spanned a variety of leadership roles and included overseeing corporate strategy during a period of time when the company executed four acquisitions and two divestitures. He would also serve as president of one of the company\u2019s largest subsidiaries.

Today, while Sonat resembles a sturdy bookend at one end of Moylan\u2019s career, Ciena\u2014the networking systems company where he has now logged 15 years as CFO\u2014could likely serve as the other.

At Ciena, supply chain challenges have remained top-of-mind in 2022.

\u201cThe priority for the company and for me personally is to address our supply chain problem, fix it, and repair our image in the minds of our customers\u2014because not only have we disrupted\xa0our\xa0business, but also we\u2019ve disrupted\xa0their\xa0businesses,\u201d remarks Moylan, who notes that Ciena\u2019s product offerings depend on the regular replenishment of parts inventories comprising some 10,000 SKUs.

As with many finance leadership resumes, long tenures as well as the transactional nature of the finance field are what punctuate Moylan\u2019s career. Turn back the clock to 1999, and Sonat was being acquired by El Paso Energy, a move that led Moylan to step into a CFO role at SCI Systems, the first of a succession of four CFO appointments for him within a mere 8 years.

Reports Moylan: \u201cIf it didn\u2019t work for me, it didn\u2019t work for me\u2014and if I learned that quickly, l would leave.\u201d\xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney