Fidelity Investments Chairman and CEO Abigail Johnson invests her energy into making finance a more inclusive environment.
Fidelity had a banner year in 2023 under Johnson's leadership; revenue rose by 12% in 2023 from a year earlier, to $28.2 billion. Managed and nonmanaged net asset flows to Fidelity's platform increased by 39% to $647 billion. The company performed well in each of its major business lines: retail brokerage, wealth management, workplace benefits, asset management and clearing and custody.
By the end of last year, Fidelity served 43.2 million workplace participant accounts, 38.7 million retail accounts and 8.7 million wealth management firm accounts using its clearing and custody platform.
Altogether, Fidelity administers $13.7 trillion in customer assets and manages $5.3 trillion in discretionary investment assets.
For Johnson, maximizing profits isn't just about attracting new investors. It's about attracting young and increasingly diverse investors. In today's culture, that means catering to digital natives.
In 2023, consumers aged 18 to 35 opened 43% of all retail accounts. Fidelity also saw a 9% increase in female customers last year while surpassing 10 million users of its mobile app. Fidelity Go®, its no-minimum hybrid robo advisor, generated 38% asset growth. Part of the firm's strategy is to let its customers choose how to engage, whether it's in-person, on social media, over the phone or with digital chat.
Fidelity has been a trailblazer from the start. When Johnson's grandfather founded the company in 1946, it was among the first mutual funds in the United States. The firm has been ahead of the curve since, including when it launched one of the industry's first spot bitcoin exchange-traded products last January.
According to a 2023 study from McKinsey & Company, only a quarter of C-suite leaders are female, making Johnson a pioneer for women in the financial services industry.
After graduating from Harvard Business School and working at several other investment firms, Johnson joined her family's company in 1988. She worked her way up through the ranks, holding several positions including president of Fidelity's mutual fund division. She's been the CEO since taking the reins from her father in 2014. She became chairman two years later.
To help open the door to future women leaders, Fidelity recently introduced several new benefits aimed at improving employees' work-life balances, including fertility treatment and menopause support, along with child adoption assistance.
For Johnson, inclusivity isn't only about women. With the help of a diversity team established in 2020, the percentage of Black or African-American employees at the company grew from 5.3% in 2020 to 7% in 2023. Its percentage of Asian employees grew from 9.2% to 14.4%, while the percentage of Hispanic or Latino employees grew from 4.6% in 2020 to 8% in 2023.
Due to its efforts, Fidelity climbed from No. 88 to No. 10 on Glassdoor's "Best Places to Work" list this year and was named a LinkedIn Top Company.
"Winning new business, expanding relationships with existing clients, strengthening our digital capabilities and enhancing the workplace culture at Fidelity all require engaged associates who understand and reflect our diverse customer base," Johnson said in the report. "This is why … we are focused on recruiting, hiring and retaining exceptional talent by offering ongoing developing opportunities and promoting an inclusive culture."
Last year, Fidelity launched Invest in My Education, or ME, a $250 million college success program to help up to 50,000 underserved students complete college and find jobs after graduation. The idea, Johnson said in the company's Diversity and Inclusion report, is to help first-generation students earn degrees without borrowing the funds.
Meanwhile, Fidelity's new Student Debt Retirement product enables employers to contribute matching dollars to participants' retirement accounts so employees can put more money toward paying down debt.
Other community involvement at the firm includes grants given to nonprofits including the Providence After School Alliance in Rhode Island, the Kramden Institute in North Carolina and the Salt Lake Education Foundation in Utah.
Despite these achievements, Johnson said she believes Fidelity has only scratched the surface on making the finance industry a more diverse landscape.
"Although we have made good progress, we know we have more to do, and we remain committed to improving the diverse representation of our teams," Johnson said in the Diversity and Inclusion report. "I'm confident that Fidelity will be well-positioned to better serve our diverse and growing customer base for generations to come."
