To CFO, millions are better than billions.

• Position: Bruce McMillen, former chief financial officer at Federal National Mortgage Association

Bruce McMillen likes to say that being chief financial officer at the Federal National Mortgage Association, better known as Fannie Mae, was no different from any other CFO's job -- just add three zeros to the financial statements.

From 1985 to 1991, McMillen, 49, oversaw the raising of nearly $60 billion a year through bond issues sold to banks and institutional investors. That money helped Washington-based Fannie Mae buy home mortgages from lenders. During the six years, annual net profits went from $37 million to more than $1.4 billion and its stock price increased tenfold.

But now McMillen is back in a million-dollar milieu as CFO of Charlotte-based Cogentrix Inc., a private company with revenues of about $290 million last year. He says he took the job partly because of the company's track record and potential and partly because of his desire to live with his wife, Sally, an associate professor of history at Davidson College.

"George Lewis has translated his vision into reality," McMillen says of Cogentrix's CEO. "He has proven that he can build power plants quicker and at a lower cost and at a higher efficiency than anybody else in the business." Formed in 1983, Cogentrix now operates 10 cogeneration plants, selling steam to industry and electricity to utilities.

Though a quasi-public agency, Fannie Mae raises more than a quarter of its money from foreign...