William McNabb, Chief Executive of Fund Giant Vanguard, to Step Down
By LANDON THOMAS Jr. JULY 13, 2017
Mutual fund giant Vanguard, in the middle of one of the biggest growth spurts ever experienced by a large asset management firm, said on Thursday
that its chief executive, F. William McNabb III, would step down.
Unlike its peers, Vanguard is owned by its funds —
and ultimately its investors — so as money rushes in, expenses are persistently reduced, resulting in perpetual savings for the legions of Vanguard clients.
Riding a surge in popularity for index and exchange traded funds
that passively track a wide variety of indexes at low costs for investors, Vanguard’s assets under management have soared to more than $4.4 trillion from $1 trillion seven years ago.
Starting with its founder, John C. Bogle, Vanguard executives have been bound by a nearly religious belief that, over the long term,
a passive investing style produces superior returns compared with trying to outsmart the market by picking individual stocks.
“This place gets in your blood,” said Mr. Buckley, who has been Vanguard’s chief investment officer since 2013.
Vanguard has one of the more tightly knit cultures in corporate America, with just about all the
firm’s senior leaders having worked at corporate headquarters in Malvern, Pa., for decades.
