THE NEW CFO.

New, as in into-the-trying-pan. Smart, energetic, ground-breaking - and sometimes downright fun - define today's winners of the chief finance title. Here, five of the chosen show why they made it to the top.

Most people wouldn't think of a career in finance as a ticket to adventure.

But the new CFOs profiled here have most unstereotypically challenged the quotidien, and found adrenalin-pumping challenges behind the numbers. All have stretched the definition of financial management past any reasonable expectation of elasticity. For quorum's Terry Allison Rappuhn, the proper practice of finance is part of the practice of medicine; she speaks of billing almost as a healing art. Warren Ligan, of Chiquita Brands, found the broadest understanding of multinational operations through a function generally considered to be the narrowest - corporate tax. Longaberger's Stephanie Imhoff learned to craft financial controls that preserve an entrepreneur's dream. The Home Depot's Dennis Carey blazed a career at the top of two of America's most financially successful companies. And our cover CFO, William Chiasson of Levi Strauss, has a habit of seeking a challenge whenever he finds himself getting comfortable.

It is a commonplace now that the role of the CFO is changing. Michael Flagg, a partner in the CFO practice of Heidrick and Struggles, defines the new CFO as "primarily a strategic business partner who happens also to manage the financial function." The new CFOs profiled here - four of the five have earned the CFO title within the past 18 months - find their new jobs are part media relations, part human resources, part marketing, part strategic planning, part technology pioneer and only part finance. Think of it as cross-training in the extreme sport of business.

Out of His Comfort Zone, Again

William Chiasson, Levi Strauss & Co.

William Chiasson, Levi Strauss

Turned CFO at LS & Co. August 1998

Up from sr. vp of finance/information systems and CFO, Kraft Foods

Bill Chiasson joined Levi Strauss & Co in August 1998, and six @ months later chief operating officer Peter Jacobi resigned. "To be honest, what really made me think seriously about leaving was watching Bill Chiasson, our new chief financial officer," Jacobi told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I said to myself, 'There really are new ways to be looking at things.'"