After signing on as CFO and executive vice president of New Jersey-based power company Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) in 2009, Caroline Dorsa moved quickly to strengthen the company's balance sheet and streamline costs.

Dorsa says the cost-cutting was done via a "detailed focus on every line item in the budget." PSEG also adopted "a more structured approach to procurement" and recruited a new procurement head, she says.

And as the financial markets began to stabilize late in 2009, Dorsa and her finance team went to work replacing a series of outstanding debt securities through exchange offers. The effort lengthened the duration of PSEG's outstanding debt and gave the company fresh access to longer-term financing, while cutting the costs of its debt portfolio at a time when the economic outlook remained uncertain.