10 questions for Total Defense CFO Marcus Smith

By Nancy Weil, IDG News Service
February 06, 2012 12:20 PM ET

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Name: Marcus Smith

Age: 48

Time with company: 8 months

Education: Bachelor of Science from the California State University, Chico; MBA from the University of Chicago

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Company headquarters: Islandia, New York

Number of countries: 6

Number of employees total: 50, but expanding

Number of employees the CFO oversees: 5

About the company: Total Defense offers malware detection and anti-crimeware software. A former CA Technologies business, the company's software has been deployed by more than 50,000 businesses globally. It has operations in New York and California in the U.S., and in Europe and Asia.

1. Where did you start in finance and what experiences led you to the job you have today?

After earning my Bachelor's from Chico, I took a fairly traditional accounting route and went to work for Price Waterhouse in public accounting. I figured I'd stay for a couple of years and then leave after I got my CPA license. I got my CPA license and ended up staying a total of 11 years, but that included a two-year stint in grad school. I enjoyed Price Waterhouse more than I thought I would, especially the professional collaboration. You had a lot of great people coming out of school and also at the partner level. But I ultimately decided it was just too accounting-focused, so I moved over to industry.

Not that long after, Sarbanes-Oxley was passed and pushed some of the regulation down to the corporate level. I was groomed to go work in the public world with that background. So the first company I went to after Price Waterhouse was a tech startup, before the tech bubble. I think the company went public more on the reputation of the CEO rather than the product. It went bankrupt within two years of going public. So after spending 11 years in one place pretty much, I joined probably the earliest stage startup I've ever really been at, but the bubble really did take off. We had a grandiose yet unproven business model. We were ready to go on our road show when the market began to deflate. We were able to sell ourselves to someone else at a reasonable valuation level. There are some memories during that time, some discussions that were had and decisions that were made, that showed how out of touch the market was with the reality.

I've been at four other companies since then -- later stage startups to midlevel companies, mostly at the CFO level. Only recently, I was referred by a friend of the CEO here, and the rest is history. The background I have with the strong tech accounting background with medium-stage to later-stage companies and small to medium-size companies, provides a great background as a company goes through its growth cycle, especially where we're at with Total Defense. The company has established itself outside of the umbrella of CA but also is establishing itself for growth as well.

2. Who was an influential boss for you and what lessons did they teach you about management and leadership?

The one I want to point out was at the company I was at during the bubble days. We brought in a whole entire management team from the media industry because that was the pitch of the company's business model. Included in that team was a CFO who came from a traditional banking background. I pretty much handled the day-to-day accounting aspects and he handled the process. I liked him a lot personally. The one thing he did, which I didn't appreciate at the time, was this detailed preparatory work, whether it relates to discussions before meetings, whether with investors or whomever. He spent a tremendous amount of time working on that in advance, not only the script but the potential Q&A that might go on afterwards. I learned to appreciate the fact that a well-conceived answer that may come up to a random question from the audience will do a lot to build confidence, whether that's with a board member or a customer.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.