When it comes to challenges, the task of organizingthe company's response to the recession probably won't be rivaledany time soon, says Derrek Gafford, CFO of TrueBlue, a $1 billionindustrial staffing company.

“We had to make some very difficult decisions in short order:deciding which branches to close and consolidate, how to reducehead count,” Gafford says. “At the same time, you have to keep toptalent. And from a liquidity standpoint, we compacted a number ofdecisions in a very short time.”

Gafford, 39, managed to cut TrueBlue's operating expenses by $70million, or 20%, in 2009, allowing the Tacoma, Wash.-based companyto post a profit despite a 25% drop in revenue.

He joined TrueBlue as treasurer in 2002 after serving as CFO atMetropolitan Markets and working at Albertson's and Deloitte &Touche. He has a B.B.A. from Boise State University.

You mentioned a variety of liquiditydecisions. Can you talk about that?
We moved ourlending facility to an asset-backed facility. It makes your levelof liquidity much more stable. And if you're in unstable times,it's nice to have a stable borrowing capacity.

The other thing was that we were able to reduce the amount ofcollateral that we had to put up as part of our insuranceagreements. Without going into too much detail, we got $50 millionin collateral back by proving out efficient financial models.

When you talk about retaining talent, are you talkingabout finance or companywide?
Companywide. Two orthree things stand out when you're going through an exercise likethis. First, you can't communicate enough when making toughdecisions. Second, there are respectful and disrespectful ways ofletting people go; I think we went about this in a respectfulmanner.

What has been your most rewarding project sofar?
They fall into two buckets. First, projectswhere the finance team has been involved in improving performance.Here's an example. A big part of our costs is sending out taxes.Our full-time staff is about 2,500, and when you talk abouttemporary employees, it's 300,000. So we send out a lot ofW-2s.

As you know, unemployment taxes went up. We had to go to ourcustomers and tell them that we had to increase our prices becauseof unemployment taxes. You can imagine how difficult thosediscussions were. We got off to a slow start in those discussions,but we were able to help get clarity on the mission and establishan approach.

The other bucket consists of projects that help develop peoplein the finance and management teams.

How did you come to be working infinance?
I started in public accounting, but I'vealways had a passion for the full spectrum of how business works.My belief is that finance offers the best approach towardunderstanding business.

What do you like best about your job?
Iget involved in a wide variety of topics that span the company'soperations. Those learning opportunities and challenges are at theheart of it for me.

How did you get on the career fast track?
No. 1, as I made decisions about my own career, I did not makecompensation at the job the No. 1 priority. I made jobopportunities and learning opportunities the key to my decision.Don't get me wrong, compensation is important. But I didn't let itbe the main driver.

Did you have a mentor and how important wasthat?
I've had several. A mentor provides diversityand perspective on life and careers and gives you the opportunityto leverage other people's learning experiences.

What skills at the most sought after now?
The most misunderstood thing that people do is to focus solely ontechnical skills. Those skills are important early in your career,but as you move through your career, management, communications andvalue creation skills become much more important.

Your career can only go so far by being smart. You have to getresults through other people, which is where management skills comein. And you can be the smartest person in the room, but if no oneknows what you're talking about, what good is it? That's wherecommunication skills, both speaking and writing, so that nonfinancepeople understand what you're talking about, are veryimportant.

And finally, the value creation piece: companies want financepeople who can partner with other marketing departments, salespeople, operating management, who can bring thought leadership andcreate more value to drive more sales, cut expenses, create moreefficiencies.

What advice would you give newbies starting out intreasury and finance now?
Look for companies thatvalue attitude and aptitude over specific functional areaexperience, ones that are willing to look at the potential of theperson.

My second advice is to take personal responsibility for your owncareer development. It's on your shoulders to make sure your careermoves forward.

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