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It's usually easiest to get this on your way to the treasurer role, rather than once you're already there, Rehmann adds. Admittedly, this often means stepping outside one's comfort zone and can require relocating. Still, the experience is valuable. "If you can get that experience, it broadens you beyond treasury," Rehmann says. "It gives a good perspective on what makes a business run."

Mark Faurie, recently appointed chief financial officer with Seegrid Corporation, a Pittsburgh-based developer of industrial robots, brings a mix of treasury and control experience to his position. After earning an economics degree from Princeton and a master's in industrial management (the degree now is an MBA) at Carnegie Mellon, Faurie joined accounting firm Ernst & Young on the audit side. In this, he veered from the traditional MBA path into consulting. He reasoned that the audit role would help him both obtain his CPA and later become a CFO.

After 13 years at Ernst & Young, Faurie moved into the treasurer position at Rapidigm, a privately-held IT services firm. He handled most banking activities, as well as day-to-day cash management and tax planning. He also oversaw the due diligence process when the company was sold. "The treasury function rounded out my experience," Faurie says. Given that Seegrid is a start-up, Faurie's experience in maintaining banking relationships and forecasting and managing cash flow is particularly valuable.

Just before taking the job at Seegrid, Faurie spent about a year as CFO at Solar Power, where a large number of his responsibilities focused on the control side, particularly financial statement preparation. This experience also is proving to be critical. "In small companies, in particular, the senior financial person should know his or her way around GAAP. If you come straight through treasury, you may not have that," Faurie says.

One company that appears to clearly recognize the value of CFOs who bring both treasury and control experience to their positions is Avista Corporation, a $1.5 billion energy company based in Spokane, Wash. Ann Wilson currently is vice president and treasurer with Avista Corporation, having been tapped for the role after spending several years in control and audit roles with both Avista Corporation and its energy trading division, Avista Energy.

After earning a degree in business economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara, Wilson, a CPA, worked in public accounting. She then spent several years in internal audit with Egghead Software in the mid-1990s and another stint in internal audit with Washington Water Power, a precursor to Avista.