But Sullivan's downfall from CFO luminary to potential defendant, besides adding another chapter to an already voluminous saga of corporate improprieties, is more fuel for a growing aversion within corporate America to the so-called superstar CFO and a sudden infatuation with tried-and-true, even stodgy financial executives with low profiles and impeccable characters. The once sought-after whiz kids, often only in their 30s and 40s, with the requisite M&A and initial public offering experience are now being replaced by old-school bean counters–individuals "with more gray hair, more of a proven track record and who are good at understanding the audit function," says Charles Wardell, managing director of the Northeast region of executive recruiter Korn/Ferry International. "Companies are not looking for aggressive growth strategies anymore. They want proven CFOs who have the background and integrity to stand up to senior management and the board."

The new "It" girls and boys of corporate finance now tend to be the same seasoned financial executives who not very long ago companies dismissed as old-fashioned and lacking vision. Today, just as many retired CEOs are being pulled from the golf courses to rescue troubled companies, the "old-timers" of finance are also being tapped, even brought out of retirement, to straighten out company balance sheets and restore some investor confidence. Among them: John Devine, the 58-year-old vice chairman and CFO of General Motors Corp., who spent 32 years at Ford Motor Co.; Allan Gilmour, the retired 68-year-old former Ford vice chairman who recently was brought back to Ford as its CFO; Lawrence Zimmerman, 59, a 31-year IBM Corp. executive who was tapped to be the CFO of beleaguered Xerox Corp., and most recently Oren Schaffer, the 59-year-old former CFO of Ameritech Inc. who was tapped to be CFO of Qwest Communications International Inc.

What makes them attractive? They are known commodities in executive circles: Any skeletons in their closets probably were already uncovered; they know the nuts and bolts of a finance department, and most important, they can calm a skittish investment community rocked by scandal. This "in" crowd tends to value the old ideals–acting in the best interest of shareholders and boards of directors, for instance, rather than making sure they can retire young as billionaires.

Experience over Flash

Most of the candidates on corporate wish lists possess experience in operations and financial management. These are people CEOs can trust, and given the Securities and Exchange Commission's most recent dictate requiring CEOs to vouch for their companies' numbers, that's a very valuable attribute. "More and more CEOs are becoming dependent on the CFO to really, for lack of a better term, serve as a watchdog of the corporation," says Gary Kaplan, an executive recruiter who runs a search firm bearing his name in Pasadena, Calif. The pressure for that kind of vigilance isn't coming only from the chief executive. Kaplan and other executive recruiters point out that boards of directors, having largely been asleep at the switch in the past, are now wide awake, asking tough questions and penalizing those who have the wrong answers.

This new crop of finance stars represents a switch from what was de rigueur just two years ago, when companies engaged in high-stakes games of one-upmanship to land the hottest young hired gun. In the go-go 1990s, the list was topped by the likes of Mark Swartz, the Tyco International Ltd. CFO who led the company's M&A shopping spree and took home in his peak year more than $48 million, and Enron Corp.'s former CFO Andrew Fastow, the alleged mastermind behind the now-infamous blind partnerships. Others considered hot who ended up in hot water include Terry Hungle, who stepped down as Nortel Networks Ltd.'s CFO as questions were raised about his trades of Nortel shares ahead of certain company announcements; former MicroStrategy Inc. CFO Mark Lynch, who was fined $350,000 by the SEC for misleading statements designed to prop up the business software company's stock price, and Steven Lash, CFO of FPA Medical Management, who was indicted for defrauding investors in the physician practice management company.

To be sure, not all former high-flying finance stars are enveloped by legal dark clouds the way that Fastow and Sullivan are. There are several current and former CFOs out there who were likewise once celebrated, but have taken on lower profiles as their companies–or careers–lost momentum, or worse. They include Deborah Hopkins, the trophy Boeing Co. CFO whom Lucent Technologies Inc. lured away with a $9 million paycheck only to part company with her 12 months later; Greg Maffei, the former Microsoft Corp. CFO who was hired away to run 360networks Inc., which is now in Canada's version of bankruptcy proceedings; Charles Chokel, who was fired as Conseco Inc.'s CFO after Chief Executive Gary Wendt said Chokel wasn't up to the job; Jim Rowe, who quit as Providian Financial Corp.'s finance chief amid balance sheet woes at the consumer credit company, and Robert Doty, who quit Dynegy Inc. amid questions about certain energy trades.

Media Gush

Sizable salaries and sugar-sweet stock-option packages were standard fare for these Young Turks, as were glowing magazine and newspaper articles applauding their genius. Just listen to the gush: Sullivan, for instance, was hailed in May 2000 by The Wall Street Journal as WorldCom CEO Bernard J. Ebbers' "trusted deputy…whose shrewd deal making has helped catapult WorldCom from a Mississippi reseller of long-distance calls into one of the world's fastest-growing, most ambitious telecom giants." Meanwhile, in October 2000, CFO magazine declared that "Mark Swartz, clearly, is not a CFO to be sold short," adding that the M&A machine he helped create at Tyco was "an unqualified success, one having no need of smoke-and-mirrors accounting." And in January 2000, when he jumped ship for 360networks, the now-defunct Industry Standard described Maffei as a manager who loved "finding the edge and riding it."

High profiles can also result in hard landings, as many of these wunderkind have discovered: The more stroking you received when you were at the top of your game, the more tongue-lashing you will probably have to stomach on the way down.

For starters, blame the recession. With revenues tumbling, finance executives are being called upon more than ever to steer their companies through particularly choppy waters–and some CFOs just aren't up to the job. For some, the skill deficit was masked at first, as acquisitions briefly kept the good times rolling. Once the M&A and IPO engines petered out, many who built their reputation on an ability to make deals found themselves having to roll up their sleeves, crunch numbers, cut costs and actually get involved with the core business.

To fend off the bad news, many resorted to more and more accounting tricks, which are translating into more and more earnings re-statements. Investors, boards of directors and, most importantly, regulators have started asking questions that some CFOs aren't able to answer. Combine those factors with stories of CFOs taking home huge annual bonuses and compensation packages, even as the companies they managed faltered, and it's easy to see why many star CFOs are falling out of favor–and out of jobs.

Dot-com financial executives have a particularly tough obstacle course to tackle to switch into brick-and-mortar businesses. "Escaping from disaster is not as easy as it used to be," Wardell notes. "If you were a former CFO of a dot-com that closed quietly, and nothing comes out of the woodwork, you'll still have to do a lot to be sold to a traditional corporation, but you can get a good job. If you were the CFO of a dot-com that was not put to bed properly, and there is litigation, you are dead to a traditional company. They don't want to hear it."

To avoid ending up with a rogue CFO, companies are also asking tougher questions of candidates and doing so more frequently. Already, a job-seeking CFO's resume is vetted thoroughly, with many recruiting firms using a host of means available to them to check its veracity. In some cases, companies check candidates with other candidates who have worked at the same employer at the same time, to get another perspective not provided through references.

Kaplan notes that getting information on candidates does get easier when they've achieved the rank of CFO, however. Simply reviewing how candidates' prior employers performed during their tenure is one way. Another is to search legal databases for lawsuits in which a candidate is named as a defendant.

Recruiters also say the interview process nowadays involves more individuals, with an understanding that everyone who meets a candidate must sign off before a job offer is extended. Says Allen Geller, a managing director at recruiting firm Raines International: "If everyone is involved in the hiring, then no one person is to blame."