Though he’d only overseen a sliver of financial operations at the time—far from the typical CFO résumé stacked with experience across accounting, FP&A, and M&A—he began pursuing finance chief roles at smaller public companies. Titles never defined him, he says. Impact did.
After “hundreds of nos,” including an initial rejection from Electronics for Imaging, he eventually landed the CFO seat there in 2011. Two years later, he joined Logitech, where working under CEO Bracken Darrell reshaped his view of financial leadership as a blend of fiscal discipline and operational execution to drive growth. Pilette, whose work at Logitech blended both financial responsibilities and internal operations, began to embrace the CFO role not as a financial steward but as a catalyst for value creation and operational change, he says.
Pilette says his unconventional climb is proof there’s no single route to the top. “Too many people feel there is one recipe,” he says. “But there isn’t.” He became a CFO without the usual credentials. He then became a CEO without chasing the title, driven instead by curiosity, discipline, and a relentless focus on value, he says.
