Vanguard hires outside CFO, will boss two veteran CFOs (Update)

In its latest move to recruit outside management, Vanguard Group today named Michael Thomas "Mike" Rollings its new Chief Financial Officer and head of its finance division. Rollings, a Georgetown grad/Northwestern MBA, joins Vanguard from Mass Mutual Financial Group.

But Vanguard also announced a new CFO, longtime employee Frank Satterthwaite, back in 2014, I pointed out. Satterthwaite had replaced Richard "Dick" Carpenter in that job.

Satterthwaite remains "CFO from a corporate financial perspective," spokeswoman Farrell tells me. "He is responsible for the financial operations and reporting at the corporate level."

There is also a third Vanguard CFO, Tom Higgins, who "oversees the finances of the more than 300" Vanguard funds worldwide, Farrell added. Higgins has held that job since Packard stepped down in 2008.

So CFOs Satterthwaite and Higgins will now report to CFO Rollings.

Is this common? "They are a private company. They can call anybody what they wish," said University of Delaware corporate-governance scholar Charles Elson. "It's like Fidelity Investments (Vanguard's longtime rival): the Johnsons, who own the company, can call people whatever titles they want."