Fidelity's deafening silence

Fortune reports:

The Yankee way of facing setbacks, as any Boston Brahmin knows, is to stiffen the upper lip and suffer in silence. As three of Fidelity Investments' key executives quit in rapid succession this year - mutual funds boss Steve Jonas in January, COO Bob Reynolds in April, and Ellyn McColgan, the head of operations and distribution, in August - the company's billionaire owner and CEO, Ned Johnson, has played to type. He has not gone out of his way to discuss the upheaval with worried employees. He hasn't admitted any problems in the press, which he has long shunned. Nor has he addressed another personnel matter, not even to Fidelity's senior brass: the health of his daughter, Abby, who runs the multibillion-dollar 401(k) and employer services division.

The medical condition of Abby, 45, the oldest of Ned's three children, would not be Fortune's business except that with the recent talent drain, Abby is now the last known candidate standing to succeed her 77-year-old father in running Fidelity, the $12.9 billion investment giant that is custodian to $3 trillion of other people's money. Johnson's refusal to discuss Fidelity is part management style and also a perk that comes with running a privately held company. But it may be clouding the firm's future.


Fidelity won't comment on Abby's health. But over the past year, say several executives who have worked with her, she has appeared to have undergone medical treatment and lost her hair - as well as weight from her already slim frame. Today she no longer wears a wig; her hair has grown back, and she looks healthy. In keeping with her stoic reputation, she has rarely missed work. But since she has not uttered a word about her health, not even to senior colleagues, no one knows if there even was an illness. Asked whether Abby has or has had cancer or another serious medical condition, Fidelity spokesperson Anne Crowley said, "We don't comment on employees' personal business out of respect for their privacy. You ought not construe anything from that." Ned and Abby Johnson declined to comment.

The problems of a family business.