John Bogle

  b. 1929 | American mutual fund manager

At The Bottom

— 1974

He was heartbroken, and his career was in a shambles.

For the first time in his career, John Bogle felt the sting of failure.  He was heartbroken, and his career was in a shambles.  At the age of 44, the former executive vice president was unemployed. Bogle had spent more than two decades ascending the ranks of Wellington Management Company, which managed some of the most successful and respected investment funds in the country.  At the tail end of a long bull market, Bogle had developed a new high performance fund and orchestrated a merger between Wellington and a Boston-based investment firm whose managers had enjoyed great success in the flourishing market of the early 1960s.  Unfortunately, the merger worked out badly for everyone, especially Bogle.  The stock market soured in the early 1970s, and the funds under Bogle’s control lost millions for their investors.  Meantime, the company’s stock lost 80 percent of its value.  In the midst of an emerging bear market, Bogle did not get along with the Boston group, and he rammed heads with other executives at Wellington, who blamed the company’s ills on Bogle’s merger.  When the Wellington board asked for his resignation, he stubbornly refused, daring them to fire him.  They did just that, turning him out on January 23, 1974.