Khanh Tran moved from chief financial officer to president of Pacific Life Insurance Co. less than two months ago, but the transition hasn’t meant a dramatic change in his daily work regimen so far.
“Practically speaking, there’s no bright line of transition that one would expect,” Tran said.
He hopes the promotion will allow him “to spend more time and focus more attention to things like investments” and plans to draw on experience from his years as a financial chief.
“If I use the acronym of CFO as a takeaway, I think the C stands for … the ability to change,” Tran said. “Business life is dynamic; you can’t be static. Your competition is going to be dynamic. Your customers are going to be dynamic. So you need to take that with you.”
He’s also holding onto that F, as in “financial.”
“No matter what you do, whether you’re a revenue producer or an accountant, you need to focus on how it’s going to impact the long-term economics of the business you’re charged with,” he said.
As for that O: “You need to be open to new ideas, open to the challenge,” said Tran, a veteran of more than two decades with Newport Beach-based Pacific Life.
“You don’t want to be a know-it-all,” he added. “As you progress in your career, the more advanced you go in terms of positions, it’s important to make sure that you don’t forget all the things you learned along the way.”
2nd Biggest
Pacific Life is the second-largest private company based in Orange County, according to the latest Business Journal list of private companies. It sells insurance policies and investments to individuals, institutions and others.
Tran joined the company as treasurer in 1990. Soon afterward, the company—then called Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co.—spun off subsidiary Pacific Investment Management Co. in a reverse merger with Stamford, Conn.-based Thomson Advisory Group LP to create Pimco Advisors LP.
“After we took Pimco public, we had a lot of value to be realized from our ownership of Pimco,” Tran said.
The related question: how best to use the proceeds?
“I just approached my boss at the time, and I said, ‘Would you be open to letting me think about how we might put some of this money to work?’ ” Tran recalled.
He was, and Tran apparently had some good ideas. Under Tran’s leadership, the company started a retirement-solutions business that in 2010 represented up to more than half of Pacific Life’s assets with $67.42 billion.
Tran said he then got another “crazy idea” about leasing aircraft, rather than owning bonds of U.S. airlines.
“That’s how Aviation Capital was formed,” he said.
Aviation Capital Group is one of Pacific Life’s non-insurance businesses. The subsidiary now owns or manages a fleet of 240 airplanes leased to 98 airlines in 38 countries.
Other business segments include Pacific Asset Management, an investment group focused in institutional fixed-income assets.
Promoted
Tran was promoted to chief financial officer in 1996, when he also joined the corporate board. His roles expanded when he took on the chief investment officer title in 2011.
Tran has raised more than $2 billion overall for the company during his tenure as CFO, while also helping steer company acquisitions and sell-offs as Pacific Life swelled in size.
Its assets rose from about $10 billion in the early 1990s to about $117 billion in 2011. Operating income also multiplied about tenfold during the span from a base of $60 million.
Tran received the Business Journal’s CFO of the Year award in the Private Company category last year.
He said he now plans to divide up his time and allot about 20% on strictly financial matters. Company veteran Adrian Griggs was named to succeed Tran as CFO.
“Adrian will be focusing 80% of his time on that,” he said. “With the new CFO … I will actually have the luxury of having someone who’s very knowledgeable about Pacific Life. He’s been here 18 years. He understands not just accounting and finance, but also the business side of things. He’s certainly well versed in risk management.”
Griggs has been part of the retirement solutions division as vice president, and he was promoted to senior vice president in 2008.
Tran said he counts on Griggs to be a partner.
“A CFO has the potential to be a partner, whether to the president or CEO, to help businesses succeed,” he said. “The more you transition to more senior roles … the moment you start managing people, you recognize fairly quickly that in order to achieve your objectives, it’s all about the people that you’re managing and overseeing.”
The perpetual question for Tran is, “How do you inspire them?”
“Inspiring people is … simple, but it’s challenging,” he said. “It’s not easy to do.”
