Abigail Johnson

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Abigail Johnson  is the chief executive officer of FMR, the parent of Fidelity Investments, a mutual fund company. She has about one-third of the Boston-based business, which has about $4.5 trillion in discretionary managed assets. FMR also holds family assets including a tomato farm in Maine and much of the Seaport section of South Boston.

The majority of Johnson’s fortune is derived from her 32.74% stake in FMR, the parent company of Fidelity Investments. Her ownership is derived from an August 2005 SEC filing and a distribution of her father Edward Johnson III’s stake. She was named CEO in October 2014.

FMR had revenue of $25.2 billion and $8 billion in earnings before interest and taxes for the twelve months ended Dec. 31, 2022, according to a presentation on its 2022 results, and its discretionary managed assets stood at $4.47 trillion as of June 30, 2023, according to the company’s website. Its valuation is based on the average enterprise value-to-Ebit and market capitalization-to-assets under management multiples of publicly traded peers.

The Johnsons hold family investments in Impresa Management, according to a March 2023 Form ADV filing. It has about $13.4 billion in assets owned by insiders. This analysis credits three family members as equal owners of 80% of insider assets.

The Johnson family also owns 40% of fund company Fidelity International. Abigail Johnson is credited with 10.9% of Fidelity International based on past regulatory disclosures. It had $729 billion in fund assets as of March 31, 2023, according to its website. This business is valued using the average assets under management-to-market capitalization multiple of publicly traded peers.

The Johnson family is credited with 46% of telecommunications company Colt Group S.A. The firm had revenues of €1.6 billion in 2022 according to filings. It’s valued based on the average multiples of publicly traded peers. Abigail is credited with a 28% share of the firm.

Other assets include oil company Discovery Natural Resources and venture capital firm Eight Roads.

A spokesman for Fidelity, Susan Coburn, didn’t respond to a request for comment on the calculations.

Biography

Education: Harvard Business School, Hobart & William Smith Colleges

When Abigail Pierrepont Johnson was born in 1961, two generations of the Johnson family were already building the Fidelity Investments mutual fund empire: her grandfather Edward C. Johnson II and her father Edward C. “Ned” Johnson III. The oldest child of Ned and his wife, Lillie, Abigail joined the family business in 1980 as an intern.

After earning a degree in art history from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, and finishing a two-year stint at Booz Allen Hamilton, she again joined Fidelity. Today, she is chief executive officer and president of Fidelity investments, having been named CEO on October 13, 2014 by her father.

Johnson has held numerous positions at Fidelity, now the second largest fund manager in the US. In 1988, after earning a Harvard MBA, she began following machinery and automation stocks for Fidelity, frequently spending road trips to the Midwest at discount hotels.

In 1993, she was named head of a diversified stock fund, outperforming the overall market by almost 12 percentage points that year. Through 1997, she managed two other funds, also beating the S&P 500, until she was promoted to help oversee Fidelity specialized growth funds under Robert Pozen. When Pozen left in 2001, she took over his responsibilities, part of a series of leadership positions at the company.

A resident of the Boston suburb of Milton, Massachusetts, Johnson is estimated to be the largest single shareholder of FMR, with 33% of the company.

Her sister, Elizabeth, and brother, Edward, are also shareholders of FMR, FIL and Impresa Management.

Milestones

• 1961 Abigail Pierrepont Johnson is born.
• 1977 Grandfather Edward C. Johnson II retires from Fidelity.
• 1984 Graduates from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
• 1988 Gets MBA from Harvard Business School.
• 1988 Marries Christopher John McKown.
• 2007 Becomes one of three vice chairs of FMR, Fidelity’s parent company.
• 2012 Promoted to president of Fidelity Investments.
• 2014 Appointed as Fidelity CEO by father Edward Johnson.