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Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley to Retire

The firm’s board has started an open search to replace him.

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A photograph featuring a Vanguard's logo sign outside its headquarter in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

Vanguard chief executive officer and chairman Tim Buckley will step down by the end of the year, ending a 33-year career at the firm, according to a statement issued on Feb. 29, 2024.

Vanguard’s announcement of the pending CEO change, the fourth in its history, differed from previous transition revelations. Historically, Vanguard has pronounced CEO retirements while simultaneously signaling who would take over. In this instance, Vanguard’s board promoted CIO Greg Davis to president but said it will evaluate internal and external CEO candidates over the coming months to find its next leader.

Vanguard has flourished in several respects under Buckley. Its assets under management have grown by two thirds while cutting its asset-weighted average US fund fees from 0.11% to 0.08% at the end of 2023. It refined its advice business through its low-cost Digital Advisor platform and more holistic Vanguard Personal Advisor Services. It has also debuted promising investment options, including high-conviction active equity strategies as part of its advice business and in-house active fixed-income funds.

Vanguard has had its share of challenges under Buckley, too. Growth in non-US assets remains slow. Between 2019 and 2023, for example, Vanguard’s efforts to build its China business underwent dramatic shifts, with the firm ultimately abandoning plans to launch low-cost index funds and ending a partnership with Ant Financial to provide advisory services to retail investors. Within the United States, customer service issues have continued to be a problem. Longtime Vanguard watchers have also raised concerns about Vanguard promoting offers like margin loans, worrying that the firm is drifting from its mission of making money for its investors, who collectively own the firm, to making money off them.

Whoever replaces Buckley should be up to these challenges and more, while also forging ahead on behalf of investors.

The author or authors do not own shares in any securities mentioned in this article. Find out about Morningstar’s editorial policies.

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About the Authors

Daniel Sotiroff

Senior Analyst
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Daniel Sotiroff is a senior manager research analyst for Morningstar Research Services LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. He covers passive strategies.

Before joining Morningstar in 2017, Sotiroff was as a design engineer at Caterpillar, where he worked on front-end loaders for heavy construction and mining applications.

Sotiroff holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in applied mechanics, both from Northern Illinois University.

Alec Lucas

Director of Manager Research
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Alec Lucas is director of manager research, active funds research, for Morningstar Research Services LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. He is a voting member of the Morningstar Medalist Ratings Committee for U.S. and international fixed-income strategies, covers fixed-income strategies from asset managers such as Baird and American Funds.

Lucas is also active in parent research. He is a voting member of the U.S. parent ratings committee and previously served as the lead analyst for Franklin Templeton, Capital Group, and Vanguard, among other firms.

Lucas was a strategist on Morningstar's equity strategies team prior to assuming his current role in June 2022. He covered equity strategies from asset managers such as Primecap and American Funds and received the 2019 Citywire Professional Buyer Rising Star Award.

Before joining Morningstar in 2013, Lucas worked as a minister as well as a professor for Loyola University Chicago, among other institutions. From 2010 to 2011, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Heidelberg.

Lucas holds bachelor's degrees in philosophy and classics from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he graduated summa cum laude and with departmental honors, and a Master of Divinity, summa cum laude, from Trinity International University. He also holds a doctorate in theology, with distinction, from Loyola University Chicago and has published several articles and one book within that field.

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