When Jorge Gomez was named CFO of Cardinal Health'spharmaceutical division this past February, he was taking charge ofthe finances of an operation about which he already knew a gooddeal. At the time, Gomez was serving as treasurer of its parentcompany, Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health, a $103-billion drugdistribution company, and prior to that, he had been the company'scontroller. The pharmaceutical division accounts for $94 billion ofCardinal Health's revenue.

“Cardinal Health has a pretty robust rotational program forhelping executives become familiar with various roles in thecompany,” says Gomez, noting that the person he succeeded as CFO ofthe pharmaceutical unit moved into his previous job as corporatetreasurer.

As treasurer, Gomez led the $5 billion spin-off of CardinalHealth's medical technologies unit, CareFusion. The company decidedthe unit, with $4 billion in sales, was not a good fit with itsstrategic plan: to boost its credit ratings significantly and focusmore on the drug distribution business, while increasing thecompany's dividend and making it more of a value, growth and incomeplay for investors at the same time.