Abigail Johnson Named CEO of Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments is getting its first new chief executive since the Carter administration.
In a memo to employees, the nation’s second-largest fund manager said Monday that it named Abigail Johnson, its 52-year-old president, to the additional post of CEO.
Ms. Johnson, known as Abby, takes over from her father, Edward C. “Ned” Johnson III, who has been chief executive since 1977.
Fidelity, whose $2 trillion in fund assets ranks it behind only Vanguard Group, also is struggling with redemptions as investors move money into passively managed products.
Ms. Johnson is adding the CEO title as the company is poised to expand into new areas of business, such as actively managed exchange-traded funds. The company has been slow to enter the ETF craze.
The management change, effective immediately, was the widely anticipated next step in what analysts and fund-industry watchers said would be Ms. Johnson’s eventual succession to the top of the closely held company.
But while both Johnsons are intensely private, Ms. Johnson is criticized by some inside the organization as being too much of an introvert, frustrating executives who don’t know where they stand with her, according to these people.
Fidelity has lately been suffering as investors increasingly have moved money into passively managed products like index funds and exchange-traded funds. In 2013, Fidelity saw operating income from its financial-services business rise 13% to $2.6 billion, but investors pulled a net $7.8 billion from its stock products, its annual report shows.
Source: wsj- Abigail Johnson Named CEO of Fidelity Investments
