James Kennedy: Keeping cool, calm, and productive.
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CEO of T. Rowe Price since 2007, James Kennedy prides himself on balancing the demands of office and home. He brought the sixth-largest mutual fund manager in the U.S. through one of the greatest financial meltdowns of the era, and kept the company together, as well as keeping investors confident despite the financial collapse of the Lehman Brothers.
While profits dipped into a 12-year low during the incident, the firm bounced back faster than almost all of its peers, in part thanks to Kennedy’s pre-emptive cost-cutting policy. In 2009, the company showed a 41% raise in assets – 25% greater than the average rise for U.S. mutual funds overall – and he has plans to acquire a place in the currently hot exchange traded funds market.
Despite all the work involved, he also has time to continue his private life, getting married for a second time and enjoying regular golf games with his new wife, as well as swimming laps three times a week and having periodic checkups with his executive coach. By staying calm and confident, he believes that it would help the employees remain calm and productive as well. In this way, he safeguards his personal and his company’s well-being.
