The 2015 Tech 50: John Marcante

Stressing low operating costs and minimizing brick-and-mortar from its start in 1975,Vanguard Groupwas “a virtual company before it was cool to be virtual,” saysJohn Marcante, who has worked at the firm since 1993 and has headed its information technology division since 2012. He says that mind-set pervades the culture and informs his approach to IT management. To illustrate what sets the Malvern, Pennsylvania–based, $3 trillion asset manager apart, he points to Personal Advisor Services, a major initiative for retail investors in recent years, pairing automated advice with live assistance. “Computers today provide services like investment advice, asset allocation and rebalancing,” notes Marcante, who led the build-out of the PAS system. “But we combine that with a person to provide peace of mind around moments of truth.” PAS is challenging not only so-calledrobo-advisersbut also traditional human guidance. “Technology is best when we bring the power of people to it,” the 50-year-old adds. On the institutional side, to better serve plan sponsors, his team has developed data analytics and visualization tools to track such defined-contribution-plan indicators as savings and participation rates. The firm is also marrying technology with behavioral finance concepts to help participants with retirement planning. The demand for product and application development requires the IT division to be nimble and test software quickly before going live, says Marcante, who studied business and computer science at Pennsylvania State University and has an MBA from St. Joseph’s University. In 1998, five years after joining Vanguard from General Electric Co., Marcante became head of technology for the institutional business. Three years later he took over global technology operations, focusing on disaster recovery and data center management in the wake of 9/11. In 2006 he switched over to the business side as head of asset management services.

See the full story, “The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge.”