Gordon Fowler Jr., chief executive and chief investment office of the Glenmede Trust Co., did all he could do not to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and father, who both worked in finance.
"My father taught me about the money supply before he taught me how to throw a baseball," said Fowler, 55.
These days, Fowler heads a finance company formed to invest the fortune of Joseph N. Pew, founder of Sun Oil Co. Besides investing the money behind the Pew Charitable Trusts, Glenmede also handles wealth management for individuals, families, and foundations.
"I really did work hard at avoiding [finance] to a certain degree," Fowler said. "I majored in African political economy."
Fowler's interest in Africa was piqued when he spent a year at a boarding school in South Africa at age 14.
Why South Africa?
To get out of West Hartford. It's a very nice place to raise your kids, but it's pretty dull.
Was South Africa still in the grip of apartheid when you were there?
It was a very different place. Things that would have existed in the U.S. South in the 1950s you would see pretty much exposed [in South Africa]. I don't have to watch a movie to tell you what racism looks like.
So you ended up in finance anyway.
There are two subjects I really like. One is history, particularly economic history. The other is math and science. My other degree is in statistics and operations research. The history part of me likes to understand how things got the way they were. In finance, understanding what's happened is a helpful guide to thinking about the future. If there's been one thing that's had a huge impact over the last 30 years, it has been this intersection of math and finance. People have used much more in the way of quantitative techniques.
Are they called quants?
Yes. I am a quant. My first jobs were all around quantitative investing.
What's the difference between that and a fundamentals analyst?
A fundamentals analyst tries to learn something about the [individual] company. Learn the management, understand the balance sheet and the income statement. They will dive in and deeply understand that. A quant can look at thousands of those income statements at once and make comparisons that the fundamental analysts can't do by themselves. If you're a quant, your view is you can extract deep truths through data analysis.
How about that same principle in your non-work life? Do you bet on sports?
No, no, no. I'm afraid I don't.
Your company deals with really wealthy people. What are they like?
To contradict F. Scott Fitzgerald, the wealthy are an awful lot like us. Every family has its assortment of triumphs and issues. Part of what we do is very nuts and bolts. We invest their money and try to earn a high rate of return. A lot of what we do is just try to simplify the financial lives of our clients. That is a real mixture of being analytical, but at the same time empathetic.
But what problems do they have? Do they have any?
Children are the great equalizer. It doesn't matter how much money you have. They can be the source of tremendous joy and the source of tremendous angst.
Do you get involved in family feuds?
We're the neutral party that often ends up helping to bring families together when times are difficult.
What do you do to relax?
I write letters to my children. I found with, particularly teenagers, they may have a hard time listening to you one-on-one, but they'll read a letter. Actually, they both went to boarding schools.
What would you write?
I could talk to the kids about family history and their views on life. And the great thing is if you're a kid and your mom and dad start doing that at home, it's like you turn it off. Whereas, if you get a letter and you're at boarding school, you haven't seen your parents for a long time, and it's like a gift that comes wrapped to you. You can read it when you feel like reading it.
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