Hi-tech, hi-touch.

• Author: Gray, Carol Lippert
• Position: Financial Executives Institute prepares to enter the 21st century

FEI enters the 21st century with new-fangled tools, old-fashioned values and dedicated leadership

On July 1, 1999, both Financial Executives Institute and Financial Executives Institute Canada handed over the chairman's gavel to new volunteer officers for one-year terms. The agendas of both Fred Allardyce and Tracey Ball include maximizing the use of technology and advocacy without sacrificing the grassroots involvement and personal networking that are FEI trademarks.

Fred Allardyce: Charting the Course

How did a former physics major become the incoming chairman of FEI? First, "I was looking for quantitative things [to study], and accounting was pretty quantitative," says Fred Allardyce with a laugh. "My undergraduate school offered only one accounting course. But the professor there was a friend of Sidney Davidson at the University of Chicago business school." Thus Allardyce, a Yale graduate, went on to accept an Institute of Professional Accounting Fellowship at the University of Chicago.

Allardyce's first job was as a budget analyst at Continental Oil. He later joined American Standard, where he served six years as vice president and CFO in the firm's later years as an LBO and through its IPO and reemergence as a public company. He's now senior vice president of American Standard, responsible for its recently established medical diagnostics businesses.

He joined FEI's New York City Chapter in 1977, "around the time I first had [CFO] kinds of responsibilities," he says. "Its international business program was particularly interesting to me." The decision to become active was an easy one, he explains, noting, "If you're going to participate, you need to give something back." He joined the chapter board and then, intrigued by the Committee on Corporate Reporting, signed on for that.

Allardyce, who interprets his new role at FEI as being a "motivator and facilitator," says he's seen many changes in FEI during the 20-plus years he's been a member. "The amount of time people have to devote to the organization has changed dramatically, and that's changed the way the organization functions," he thinks. "It's hard to get enough people to break away from their jobs, and that's an opportunity and a challenge for FEI. Peer interaction is as sought after as ever, but time is so precious." One way to address this issue, he says, is to strengthen the chapters.

"We have to develop programs to make life easier in the chapters and bring members in," he...