and accounting, and treasurer. "The only difference is that now I have responsibility for investor relations,"

says the 44-year-old CFO, who joined the Atlanta-based home-improvement retailer in 1995 as vice president and treasurer.

Among her other responsibilities are financial planning, operations, analysis

and reporting, as well as treasury, tax, business valuations and the divisional controllers. She reports directly to CEO Robert L. Nardelli. Home Depot

has no immediate plans to fill the treasurer slot.

Tom? will continue working closely with Dennis J. Carey, an executive vice

president, whom she succeeds as CFO. Carey now spearheads the Dow-30 company's business development, strategy and corporate operations.

Though Tom? describes Carey as the primary strategy officer and herself as "the numbers person," it is clear that she looks forward to helping him

develop strategy and manage growth.

Tom?'s appointment came as Home Depot experienced a 3% drop in first-quarter sales, its first same-store revenue decline in 15 years. Tom? is

undaunted, pointing out that in its 22 years of existence Home Depot has emerged from two previous economic downturns as a stronger, more

diversified business.

Further, the company anticipates that President Bush's income-tax rebates

and the Federal Reserve's interest-rate reductions will boost sales at its nearly 1,200 stores during the second half of 2001.

Given the current lower interest-rate climate, Tom? describes Home

Depot's financing approach as "opportunistic."

In April the retailer issued $500 million of five-year senior notes at a coupon

rate of 5.375%.

"We didn't need the cash," she explains, "but the rate was too attractive to

pass up. We have very little outstanding debt." (The company's debt-to-total-capital ratio is less than 10%.)

Tom? says that her chief accomplishment as treasurer was preaching the

metric of return on invested capital throughout the $45.7 billion-revenue company.

"This year I am introducing the 'cash-conversion cycle,'" she says, "the

number of days it takes to convert working capital into cash."

In this tightening economic environment, she adds, the company is paying

particularly close attention to working capital components such as inventory, receivables and accounts payable.

"We have hired outside firms to come in and benchmark our financial

operations," Tom? says. "We're looking for processing efficiencies. The biggest expense I have is people, so I want to make sure I have the best

processes in place. The way to do that is to compare yourself with other best-in-class companies."

Tom? got her professional start at United Bank of Denver (now a unit of

Wells Fargo), experience that she's putting to good use in today's rough banking environment.

"I have worked the credit spectrum of risk, so I have been able to use my

banking background to manage effectively," she says. "If you can't give a bank a profitable opportunity in a consolidating environment, you may be at

risk of not getting the services you need at an attractive price."