The path to the C-suite often follows a familiar blueprint. For Gen Digital CEO Vincent Pilette, it was anything but. Pilette says he never had CEO aspirations, much preferring the role of CFO. So he did what few would: Early in his career as a financial analyst at a Fortune 500 IT company, he told the company’s then-CFO he wanted her job, he says. But when she outlined a rigid 15-year succession plan, he walked. “I don't have that much time,” he told Fortune.
Though he’d only overseen a sliver of financial operations at the time—far from the typical CFO résumé stacked with experience across accounting, FP&A, and M&A—he began pursuing finance chief roles at smaller public companies. Titles never defined him, he says. Impact did.
