John Clifton "Jack" Bogle (born May 8, 1929) is the founder and retired CEO of The Vanguard Group. He is known for his 1999 book Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor, which became a bestseller and is considered a classic.[1][2]
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Bogle was born in in Verona, New Jersey. His family was affected by The Great Depression. He attended Blair Academy on a full scholarship, earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1951, and attended evening and weekend classes at the University of Pennsylvania.
Upon graduation he went to work for Walter L. Morgan at Wellington Management Company.[3] After successfully climbing through the ranks, he was named chairman of Wellington but was later fired for an "extremely unwise" merger that he approved, a poor decision that he considers his biggest mistake, stating "The great thing about that mistake, which was shameful and inexcusable and a reflection of immaturity and confidence beyond what the facts justified, was that I learned a lot".[4]
Bogle then founded The Vanguard Group in 1974. Under his leadership, the company grew to be the second largest mutual fund company in the world. Influenced by the works of Eugene Fama, Burton Malkiel, and Paul Samuelson, Mr. Bogle founded the Vanguard 500 Index Fund in 1975 as the first index mutual fund available to the general public.[5] He continues to be active in The Vanguard Group.
Bogle is a member of the board of trustees at Blair Academy. He is also an advisory board member of the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance at the Yale School of Management. Bogle received an honorary doctorate of law from Princeton University in 2005.
Bogle also currently serves on the board of trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, a museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution. He had previously served as chairman of the board from 1999 through 2007. He was named chairman emeritus in January 2007, when President George H.W. Bush was named chairman.
Bogle is famous for his insistence, in numerous media appearances and in writing, on the superiority of index funds over traditional actively-managed mutual funds. He believes that it is folly to attempt to pick actively managed mutual funds and expect their performance to beat a well-run index fund over a long period of time.
Bogle argues for an approach to investing defined by simplicity and common sense. Below are his eight basic rules for investors:[6]
Bogle and his wife Eve have six children and are grandparents. They reside in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.