Ali Rowghani got a voice mail on his mobile phone from SteveJobs on a Saturday in early 2010. The Apple Inc. co-founder wantedto keep Rowghani, then chief financial officer at Walt Disney Co.'sPixar, from leaving to become finance chief at Twitter Inc.

Jobs, who also led Pixar before selling it to Disney, madeseveral calls, as did Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger, saida person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to beidentified because the interchange was private. Rowghani leftanyway.

“This company is already like world famous and making thismassive impact and has clearly touched this nerve,” Rowghaniremembers saying about Twitter at the time. “I didn't think I'dencounter opportunities like that very frequently.”

At his new employer, Rowghani, 39, has assumed a broader rangeof responsibilities than the typical number-crunching CFO, holdingsway over partnerships and global expansion. While Rowghani alsohandles finances, he's one of the closest advisers to CEO DickCostolo, and he will figure more prominently as the microbloggingservice seeks to fend off competition while heading for an eventualinitial public offering.

“Ali's brought terrific business judgment to the company,” saidPeter Currie, a private investor who is on Twitter's board. “Hethinks broadly. He doesn't think just from the point of view fromhis position as CFO.”

Executives have declined to speculate on a timetable for an IPO.For now, the company is focused on attracting users and findingways to generate revenue from advertisers eager to reach Twitter'saudience of more than 140 million people. The company isforecasting at least $1 billion in sales in 2014, two people withknowledge of the matter said in June. That was about twice theprediction at the time from EMarketer Inc.

Aside from helping Twitter grapple with such companies asFacebook Inc. and Google Inc., Rowghani's bigger challenge willcome in navigating the San Francisco-based company toward an IPO.He hasn't guided a new company through the process and has littleexperience holding the top finance job at a publicly tradedcompany.

Twitter will probably be the biggest consumer-Web company tomake a market debut since Facebook, which has lost half its valuesince May 17, when it went public with too high a price set by itsfinance chief, David Ebersman, along with advisers. Rowghani willneed to set Twitter's price high enough to secure the fundingTwitter needs without giving it a loftier valuation than itdeserves.

IPO Scrutiny

“Like Facebook, Twitter will be a very high-profile consumer IPOand will be scrutinized even more closely as a result of Facebook'smissteps,” said Lise Buyer, principal at Class V Group in PortolaValley, California. “The CFO is the member of the management teamwho is most deeply involved in the process from start tofinish.”

In a recent example of Rowghani's widening remit, he was givenoversight of business development and partnerships, according topeople with knowledge of the matter.

“He's a calm and strategic thinker,” CEO Costolo said. “He'sbeen incredibly helpful to me in driving operating leverage andoperating efficiency across the company.”

Relations with partners haven't always gone smoothly. Thecompany said this year it's tightening rules on how Twitter'sTweets could be used on other sites. It forced companies such asLinkedIn Corp. to pull Twitter postings and it rankled partners,including Instapaper LLC, maker of a news-archivingapplication.

“Effectively, Twitter can decide your app is breaking a(potentially vague) rule at any time, or they can add a new rulethat your app inadvertently breaks,” Marco Arment, Instapaper'sfounder, wrote in a blog. “They've always had this power. But nowwe know that they'll use it in ways that we really don't agreewith.”

While the rules left other companies dismayed, it also gaveTwitter more control over its content — and the ability to wringsales from users' tweets.

Born in Iran and raised in Dallas, Rowghani was a Fulbrightscholar and a McKinsey & Co. consultant before attendingStanford University for graduate work. He joined Pixar in 2001.

Rowghani showed an interest in the details of every aspect ofthe business — in addition to the numbers, said Ed Catmull,president of Disney Animation and Pixar.

Pixar Penny-Pincher

“Here, we give a lot of credibility if the leaders roll up theirsleeves and dive in and do real work, it just means they knowwhat's going on,” Catmull said.

That knowledge helped Rowghani spearhead an effort to reducefilm costs as the studio stepped up movie output.

“I was totally in the weeds on that stuff — and I was trying tobring a more systematic-like business-driven intuition to answeringthose questions” about how the movie comes together, Rowghani said.“You can have a process and have creativity at the same time. It'snot like one squashes the other.”

That combination of skills made him an attractive candidate forTwitter, said Peter Fenton, a Twitter board member who interviewedhim before he joined the company.

Rowghani helped the company implement its advertising strategy,Fenton said. Twitter announced its first advertising services inApril 2010 and has been expanding them ever since.

“Ali says, 'Let's lay out our ideas, what's going to scale,what's going to work,'” Fenton said. Rowghani worked with Costoloto turn them “into a framework for how we would scale the revenueof Twitter.”

Rowghani played a key role in lining up the venture capitalround from DST Global and other existing investors that valuedTwitter at about $8 billion last year.

“The discipline that Ali brought to the fundraising was reallyan internal discipline — which is, if they raise money at a certainvaluation, they needed to understand how they were going todeliver,” Currie said.

Rowghani also had oversight of Twitter's international expansionplans for about nine months. During that period, Twitter managementdebated whether to form a partnership or joint venture with a localcompany to help lure users in Japan.

Rowghani pushed for the company to stay independent to retaincontrol over its future, according to a person with knowledge ofthe deliberations. Rowghani's view prevailed.

While he's willing to speak his mind, Rowghani is also affable,with a boisterous laugh that fills conversations at meals, saidDavid Fischer, vice president of business and marketingpartnerships at Facebook, who became friends with Rowghani atStanford.

Persian Feast

“He's just unendingly friendly and upbeat and cheerful,” Fischersaid. “He's just a humble and down-to-earth guy.”

Rowghani, who's single, is known for big dinner parties at hishome in San Francisco's East Bay, said another Stanford friend, RoyGilbert. When his mother came to town for a recent visit, Rowghanihosted more than 100 guests. His mom ladled out authentic Persianfood while guests hung out on a large balcony overlooking theOakland Hills and the San Francisco Bay.

That friendliness extends to the workplace, including when hewas at Pixar, said Oren Jacob, former chief technology officer atPixar.

“He understands how to strike the very careful balance betweenthe creative needs of a project, with the attention to financialmanagement,” Jacob said. “To walk both of those — a content and amanagement space at the same time — and have enough appreciationfor both sides of that coin.”

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