Vanguard Group Chief Executive Officer Salim Ramji is putting his imprint on the world's second-largest asset manager by siphoning talent from Wall Street firms to fill key roles.
In the past few months, he made at least 10 senior hires from companies including BlackRock Inc., his ex-employer, as well as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and rival Fidelity Investments.
Eve Cout, formerly a top executive at BlackRock's U.S. wealth unit, joined Vanguard this month to oversee advisor solutions for the company's financial advisor services. Ramji also hired Goldman Managing Director Pete Spera as head of digital and analytics for advice and wealth management, and Fidelity veteran Kathryn Condon as chief marketing officer.
The hiring spree highlights Ramji's ambitions to grow its mainstay business of low-fee mutual and exchange-traded funds and also expand into higher-margin areas such as wealth and financial advice. The CEO also tapped Nuveen's Bill Stout to lead private markets strategy, an area that previously wasn't a key focus for Malvern, Pennsylvania-based Vanguard.
"We're proud that top talent across the industry continues to be drawn to Vanguard's mission," a company spokesperson said in a statement.
Ramji, the first outsider to run the $12 trillion asset manager, has been clear about his intention to attract senior people from rival firms in addition to promoting internally, which had been the firm's preference historically. Greg Davis, Vanguard's president and chief investment officer, said in an interview last year that Ramji's external network would help draw external candidates.
Ramji, once viewed as a potential successor to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, took the helm in July 2024. Since then he has pushed the 50-year-old firm to focus on more lucrative businesses while continuing to slash fees on its funds. This month, Ramji unleashed another round of fee cuts across Vanguard's lineup of ETFs and mutual funds, bringing its average asset-weighted expense ratio to 0.06%.
Ramji has carved out a wealth and advice division, led by former Fidelity executive Joanna Rotenberg, which charges higher fees than passive funds but still undercuts competitors in terms of advisory fees. Vanguard also teamed up with longtime partner Wellington Management and private equity giant Blackstone Inc. to create private assets funds for retail investors. In May, the three firms announced they were working on their first product.
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