Former Fidelity Investments chief Ned Johnson dies aged 91

Edward “Ned” Johnson, who led the transformation of Constancy Investments into one of many world’s largest asset administration teams, has died at age 91, his daughter and successor Abigail introduced on Thursday.

Johnson ran Boston-based Constancy, which had been based by his father and namesake, for practically 40 years. By the point he stepped down as chief government in 2014 the regional household agency had turn out to be a behemoth, accountable for managing practically $5tn.

Whereas on the helm, Johnson spearheaded using mutual funds in retirement financial savings and pioneered direct gross sales to retail traders. He additionally revolutionised short-term financial savings by permitting shoppers to write down checks off cash market funds.

Alongside the best way, he leaned exhausting into new expertise, pushing for the acquisition of the agency’s first laptop in 1965 and the introduction of its first name centre for potential shoppers in 1974. Ten years later, Constancy computerised buying and selling with floppy discs that enabled prospects to purchase and promote shares, and it arrange the primary webpage for a mutual fund household in 1995.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Johnson attended Harvard and served within the Military earlier than becoming a member of the household agency in 1957. He personally managed Constancy’s Magellan fund earlier than handing it off to Peter Lynch, whose success as an energetic supervisor helped make the corporate well-known.

Personal and reserved, Johnson hardly ever spoke at public occasions or gave interviews. At Constancy, he used what Lynch as soon as described as “the smallest CEO workplace on the earth”. When Johnson retired, Lynch informed the Boston Globe, “He by no means bragged about something, and he’d discuss shares or corporations he’d purchased up to now that didn’t work. He was very open to self-criticism.”

Regardless of that, Johnson proved reluctant at hand over the reins of the corporate, keeping off Abigail Johnson’s first try to take over in 2004 by issuing further shares within the household enterprise. He then moved her out of her position operating the mutual fund arm into office pensions. At his loss of life he managed a fortune of $11.5bn, making him the sixtieth wealthiest particular person in America, in accordance with Forbes. His three youngsters maintain practically $40bn extra.

Johnson died at house in Florida, surrounded by his household, Abigail Johnson mentioned. “He liked his household, his co-workers, work, the inventory market, artwork and antiquities, tennis, snowboarding, crusing, historical past, and a superb debate. He might be counted on to have the contrarian view on absolutely anything,” she wrote on LinkedIn.