Ellen Johnson, treasurer and senior vice president at theInterpublic Group of Companies, always keeps the end goal insight.

Since her early 20s, when she left public accounting to begin acareer in corporate finance, Johnson has methodically built up herresume. From the 24-year-old who didn't yet have an M.B.A., butnonetheless talked Revlon Corp. into giving her the chance to workin financial planning and analysis, to stints as assistanttreasurer, to her current position at Interpublic, Johnson hasasked for and received more responsibility.

Two years ago, she added responsibility for corporatedevelopment, including M&A, to her treasury duties atInterpublic. Johnson hopes her career will eventually encompass therole of CFO and a board seat.

“I've really tried to continuously round out my backgroundin finance,” she says. “Between the CPA, the M.B.A., FP&A,treasury, corporate finance and now corporate development, I justkeep broadening my different skill sets.”

At Revlon, a high-yield company, Johnson first learned to be“thoughtful” about boosting liquidity without overburdening thebalance sheet and to be aware of every penny and dime. Thoselessons stay with her, she says.

“You have to make sure that you're extremely thoughtful,that you're using advisers to the best degree, and working throughall the options before you come up with recommendations,” Johnsonsays.

The Revlon experience helped her navigate through some difficulttimes at Interpublic, a $7 billion marketing and advertisingholding company in New York. Just after Johnson arrived in 2000,Interpublic restated its earnings and was a delinquent filer for atime, which damaged its credit ratings.

Johnson has helped the company regain investment-grade status attwo out of the three major credit rating agencies, with the third,Standard & Poor's, shifting to a positive slant on Interpublicabout two months ago, citing the company's improved profitability.Working with the rating agencies is “a lot about buildingrelationships and building trust,” she says. “We try for continuousdialogue, so they're never surprised.”

To accomplish the turnaround, Johnson madesome bold decisions, including selling half of Interpublic's stakein Facebook last year for $133 million and increasing the corporatecredit facility to $1 billion, from $650 million, while extendingit by five years.

“We also got our house in order,” Johnson says, “We put in placevery good processes—accounting, internal control—and really justbuttoned down our processes.”

Interpublic shared its progress with investors in the form of a$450 million share buyback program and a 6-cent dividend, the firstInterpublic has paid since 2002.

Last year, Johnson oversaw 16 corporate deals, more than thecompany had done over the previous four years. She sees decisionsabout the company's capital as the critical piece of her job.

“The greatest responsibility is making sure that we are beingvery thoughtful about the way we allocate capital,” she says,“making the right decisions about how much we give back to ourshareholders, versus how much we invest, and in what. It's makingsure we get that mix, in the best possible manner, so we'recontinuously increasing shareholder value.”

When it comes to her children—a nine-year-old and seven-year-oldtwins—she strives to make sure she never misses a game or recital,and she's usually at the dinner table every night, even if thatmeans working again afterward.

Just as there are opportunities at work that shouldn't bemissed, so there are in the home, Johnson says.

“Maintaining that quality of life and work balance is thegreatest challenge every single day.” she says. “It's about reallypushing yourself to be as efficient as possible in every secondthat you spend your time, so that you allow yourself to remaininvolved and important. They grow up so fast, and if you're notcareful, you're going to miss it.”

See the 2012 Women in Finance list here.

See Part I of the Women in Finance slideshow here, Part II here and Part III here.

See the 2011 Women in Finance list here.