CFOs have become global.

• Author: Hollein, Marie
• Position: President's page - Chief financial officers - Viewpoint essay

With the latest meeting of the Group of 20 (G-20) nations just completed, we again have the opportunity to stand back and view our place in the business world through an increasingly global lens. An article I recently contributed to the G20 Seoul Summit 2010 magazine touched on some of the many ways the role of the chief financial officer has changed dramatically over the years through globalization.

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We've moved well beyond the idea of financial officer as a kind of local traffic cop. Today's senior-level financial executive is someone who wears many hats. He or she is part global financial strategist, part senior risk manager and, in many cases, an integral member of the company's board of directors or audit committee. That growing complexity is born of necessity.

Shifting marketplaces and marketplace pressures, changes in the capital markets, the roller coaster of economic booms and busts we've endured over the past two decades--these are just a few of the factors that have transformed businesses and continue to affect the way we conduct business.

We're also dealing with a jumble of differing national and global accounting standards, foreign exchange rates, tax rates and national taxation rates that can vary widely from one place to the next. Never a dull moment.

Financial Executives International has been charting the growth and expansion of the finance function in the U.S. and internationally since 1931. FEI was launched nearly 80 years ago as the Controllers Institute of America. It was the product of 30 senior-level financial executives stepping up to the plate to assist a struggling government and trying to help revive the economy. Their input was invaluable then, as it is to this day.

I'm sure the business executives of that era thought it was an economic landslide that wouldn't soon be repeated. As we all know, the global financial collapse of these past three years has come close. We've lived through the worst of it--hopefully--and I expect we'll emerge in decent shape on the other side. This period has reinforced to me that while the complications and breadth of the job of the financial executive have evolved, some things haven't.

FEI, too, has maintained its mission and focus, even if our once-modest membership is just a tiny fraction of what it has become in the intervening years. That original small group of 30 now numbers about 15,000; we underwent a name change many years back to reflect the changing...