Abigail Johnson Takes Lead at Fidelity

As president and CEO, Johnson, who was named president of the firm in 2012, “will continue to be responsible for executive management of all the firm’s diversified businesses,” according to Fidelity. Johnson takes the helm from her father, Edward C. Johnson 3d, who will remain chairman of the firm and will provide strategic oversight.

A memo distributed to employees says Abigail Johnson’s appointment as CEO reflects “a further step forward in our leadership succession plan.”

Additionally, according to the memo, Gerry McGraw, president of Fidelity Institutional, and Mike Wilens, president of Fidelity Enterprise Services, have been elected directors of the company.

Since joining the firm full time in 1988, Johnson has worked in and overseen numerous businesses at Fidelity.  Before assuming her current role, she served as president of Fidelity’s retail, workplace and institutional businesses. Prior to that, she ran Fidelity’s workplace business.

Having begun her Fidelity career as an equity research analyst, Johnson has also spent a number of years in the company’s asset management division, including serving as president from 2001 to 2005.  During her tenure, she managed a number of Fidelity mutual funds before serving as an associate director for the firm’s equity division, where she oversaw and coordinated the activities of the Growth and Capital Appreciation groups. Johnson also managed the company’s equity investment systems, overseeing the design and implementation of technology initiatives essential to Fidelity’s trading, portfolio construction, management, and research capabilities. 

In addition to her responsibilities with FMR, Johnson is chairman of Fidelity Worldwide Investment (FIL Limited), a separate company that operates independently of FMR.

Johnson received a bachelor of arts degree in art history from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1984 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1988. She is a member of the Board of the Directors of the Associates at the Harvard Business School and the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.