Since 2014, American entrepreneur Abigail Johnson has served as Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Investments, one of the world’s leading investment firms. Her success story, along with her bold decisions and fresh ideas, has been an inspiration for many women who venture into the world of finance.
Born in 1961 in Boston, she attended top private schools in Cambridge before graduating from Hobart and William Smith Colleges with a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history in 1984.
During her studies, she was already spending her summers as an intern at Fidelity Investments, the Boston-based finance firm founded by her grandfather in 1946.
After graduation, however, she first worked at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in New York, where she also met her future husband.
Three years later, the year of their wedding, Johnson earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and finally joined the family business as a lowly stock analyst.
Over the years, even though it was not always easy, especially in this male-dominated world, she proved herself by working her way up through the company before finally taking over as CEO in 2014 and as a board chair two years later.
Smart and hard-working, Johnson has been determined to turn the company toward a new generation and step out from her father’s shadow. For instance, she is reducing its reliance on traditional, open-end mutual funds and has also launched new products specifically targeted at millennials. The company introduced a crypto-currency platform that enables digital assets to be accessible to all investors.
In addition, as one of the only female heads of a major financial firm, she has repeatedly emphasized her dedication to getting more women involved in investing and increasing female presence in the industry.
"Women need to know that they can be successful investors, and many of them are—we just need more of them out there," Johnson once stated.
As such, it is no surprise that her career path and achievements have led her to be ranked on Forbes’ lists of 2021 Billionaires (#85) and 2020 Power Women (#9).