Colleen Ostrowski, treasurer and vice president ofinvestor relations at $2 billion ITT Corp., recently helped achievewhat some in her organization, including Ostrowski herself attimes, thought might be impossible—carving three investment-gradecompanies out of the legacy $11 billion diversified manufacturerwithin one year.

Over the course of 2011, ITT shunted its defense and waterbusinesses into separate companies, Exelis and Xylem, and emerged atrimmer company with four never-before combined business lines thatmanufacture products for the energy, aerospace, and transportationindustries, among others. At the end of the year, each of the threecompanies had an investment-grade rating as a result of Ostrowski'scareful oversight of structure and balance sheet.

The successful spinoff is one of the accomplishments Ostrowskiis proudest of. She also counts it among her greatest learningexperiences, because it showed her the structure and strengths ofeach business and allowed her to communicate that to the investmentcommunity. That experience in taking a lead role in communicatingwith the rating agencies and investors led to Ostrowski's taking onan additional role in investor relations this year.