William McNabb, Chief Executive of Fund Giant Vanguard, to Step Down<br />By LANDON THOMAS Jr. JULY 13, 2017<br />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<br />that its chief executive, F. William McNabb III, would step down.<br />Unlike its peers, Vanguard is owned by its funds —<br />and ultimately its investors — so as money rushes in, expenses are persistently reduced, resulting in perpetual savings for the legions of Vanguard clients.<br />Riding a surge in popularity for index and exchange traded funds<br />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.<br />Starting with its founder, John C. Bogle, Vanguard executives have been bound by a nearly religious belief that, over the long term,<br />a passive investing style produces superior returns compared with trying to outsmart the market by picking individual stocks.<br />“This place gets in your blood,” said Mr. Buckley, who has been Vanguard’s chief investment officer since 2013.<br />Vanguard has one of the more tightly knit cultures in corporate America, with just about all the<br />firm’s senior leaders having worked at corporate headquarters in Malvern, Pa., for decades.
