A West Virginia University alumnus who leads the nations largest mutual fund company will be the next speaker in the Acordia/Royal&SunAlliance Distinguished Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, in Room 458 of the College of Business and Economics.
Robert L. Reynolds, vice chairman and chief operating officer of Fidelity Investments, will speak on The Future of Mutual Funds: Toward a Stakeholder Society. Fidelity Investments is the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans and a leading online brokerage firm.
Reynolds is also the head of the Fidelity Management Committee and a member of the FMR Corp. board of directors. In addition, he serves as a trustee for the Fidelity family of mutual funds and serves on the board of Fidelity Investments Canada Limited.
Before being named to this position in June 2000, Reynolds was president of Fidelity Investments Institutional Retirement Group. He was responsible for Fidelitys retirement products and related services offered to corporations, not-for-profit organizations and government entities, and Fidelitys benefits outsourcing and human resources/payroll administration and processing services to corporate clients.
According to a Business Week article (Feb. 19, 2001), during the 11 years Reynolds ran Fidelitys 401(k) business,”he grew the assets it had under management to $224 billion from $9 billion, making him the nations largest 401(k) manager as measured by assets.”
Reynolds graduated from WVU in 1974, obtaining a bachelors degree in business administration with a major in finance. He then started his career as a trust manager for Wheeling Dollar Bank, staying on when it was bought by NCNB Corp. (now Bank of America) of Charlotte, N.C. Before leaving that company for Fidelity in 1984, Reynolds had worked his way to senior vice president.
The College of Business and Economics has offered this Distinguished Lecture Series since 1984. Known for 15 years as the McDonough Caperton Distinguished Lecture Series, it was renamed the Acordia/Royal&SunAlliance Distinguished Lecture Series in response to changes in sponsorship. Acordia, one of the largest insurance brokers in the world, is a nationwide network of companies that provides insurance brokerage, managed health care administration and consulting services. Acordia of West Virginia is based in Charleston. It is one of the 25 largest property/casualty insurers in the United States and is part of the London-based international Royal&SunAlliance Insurance Group, which transacts business in some 130 countries.