Leadership's role in shaping and sustaining FEI: the commitment, countless hours and unique qualities of FEI's volunteer leadership have largely contributed to making the organization what it is today. A snapshot of the leadership challenges through the decades--both inside and outside of the Controllers Institute of America (now FEI).

• Author: Heffes, Ellen M.
• Position: Financial Executives International

Marking the first anniversary of the Controllers Institute of America in 1932, President Frank J. Carr delivered his first message to members. In it, he said, "What the Institute may be five or ten years from now is something which we cannot predict ... We believe that it will be a powerful and important organization."

Just think. If Carr were here today, he'd be bursting with pride at what he'd helped to create. Today's Financial Executives International (FEI)--renamed Financial Executives Institute in 1962 and then "International" in 2000--has done the work and earned the reputation that Carr describes; it has become both "powerful and important." Fast forward to the 1980s, when it was written: "The Institute is an effective voice for the private financial sector of the business community to governmental, professional and academic communities. Its most important strength lies in its members and their participation in FEI activities, for without this participation FEI would not progress."

Then, fast-forward again, to the 21st century, when the 2005-06 Chairman, Robert Walker, wrote in his letter to the membership: "this is perhaps the most important time for an organization like FEI to be around for our members," due to the unprecedented complexity and demands of modern finance and the harsher regulatory environment.

The organization that has evolved is largely the product of the volunteer members and especially the leaders, who devote countless hours of their time, energy and unique skills and resources. FEI could not have sustained itself, nor accomplished all that it has for the profession, without the determination and commitment of its volunteer leadership.

In speaking about individual leaders in his landmark book Good to Great, Jim Collins says that besides doing a great job while you're in the top spot, it's about what happens after you're gone. "The real litmus test is your legacy." The fact that FEI is celebrating 75 years speaks volumes about the quality of its volunteer leadership!

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So, what follows is a snapshot of some of the organization's challenges and its volunteer leaders--the presidents and chairmen (and much later, women). FEI's top leadership has been busy these past seven-plus decades--internally and externally. Among the top concerns are membership (recruiting, serving and retaining), and professional and advocacy issues. Along its path, the organization has changed its membership requirements and its structure, as it's deemed necessary in response to the environment at a given time. Launched for controllers, the Institute broadened its membership, and even changed its name, to denote the expanding finance executive's role.

Of changes implemented during his year as chair (1997-98), William Parfet says: "Chances are if we put all this in play again today, it wouldn't work. The world has moved to another place!" Indeed, like the business world it serves, FEI is continually evolving. What follows are select bits and pieces of the leaders' challenges to simultaneously keep up and move forward. Segments are from FEI historical documents, Leader Tributes and in their own words.

* THE STRUCTURE

Throughout FEI are various opportunities for leadership--from local committee chairs to those who gain national committee and then office of the chair positions. In the early years, the organization's highest volunteer position, president, worked along with a board of directors. Arthur R. Tucker, the Institute's founder, selected 13 men to serve on the first board; they then voted for officers. The first president, F.J. Carr, served two terms.

On the Institute's five-year anniversary, a tribute to founder Arthur R. Tucker, written by Alan G. Benson (then chairman of the committee on publication of The Controller), reads: "During the worst depression the Western World has ever experienced, he began to organize the controllers of American business concerns. The measure of success that has attended his work is evidenced by the strength and standing which The Institute enjoys today."

The writer continued: "We now come to the Fifth Annual Convention with a feeling of optimism, which springs from the satisfaction of having seen the small acorn grown to a sturdy oak, and hopeful of rendering to business concerns in America, and to its members, a service which will more than justify its existence. All this has been accomplished in five short years, marked in the industrial world by vicissitudes and economic upheavals."

Later, from A Brief History, published in 1971 on the occasion of FEI's 40th year (edited here): "The challenge of the 1970s loomed formidable for finance executives as the Institute entered its fifth decade amid the most complex of times and a level of technology so awesome that it would have staggered the imagination of most people during the early thirties. FEI was on the threshold of a new and demanding era that promised to tax the efforts of financial executives to the limits of their energies. This increased level of activity within the Institute concerned the leaders, and a strategy for the future was developed.

"In May of 1971 the board of directors elected FEI's first full-time president and CEO (Charles C. Hornbostel). His challenge was to strengthen FEI as the objective and effective voice of the business community; establish sound relations with both government regulatory agencies and the private-sector standard-setting bodies; increase the involvement of members in the activities of the Institute; and reorganize the Institute internally in order to effectively meet these challenges."

By 2006, five individuals had served in the top administrative staff position. Charles Hornbostel (1971-78) was succeeded by Robert W. Moore (1978-89); followed by P. Norman Roy (1989-99); then Philip P. Livingston served from 1999-2003; and the current President and CEO, the first woman to hold the top spot, Colleen (Sayther) Cunningham, who has served since April 2003. As the years have progressed, the role of the volunteer chair, Office of the Chair (OOC) and executive board have become more involved in the operations of the organization, while the staff President and CEO has become the external face of FEI, representing the organization before regulators, members, chapters, other outside organizations and constituencies and the press.

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* EARLY NOTABLE COMMENTS ON THE INSTITUTE AND THE PROFESSION BY ITS CHAIRS

1935-36: Rodney S. Durkee "No man invited to the presidency of the Controllers...