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(Bloomberg) -- The unsung hero of modern investing spends his days on the sunny vineyards of Sonoma, California -- a world away from Wall Street.
John “Mac” McQuown never helmed a big bank, crafted policy from Washington D.C., nor enjoyed name recognition like his kindred spirit Jack Bogle.
But exactly 50 years ago to this day, McQuown and his team of legendary academics created the first-ever index fund -- an innovation that would take a sledgehammer to the money-management establishment and evolve into a more than $11 trillion industry.
“It goes without saying that I’m an anarchist,” McQuown, 86, said in an interview.
With his disruptive zeal, the team at Wells Fargo & Co. sought to shake up the investing orthodoxy. The charge: Money managers left to their own devices are typically undiversified, expensive and unfit for purpose.
“In the 50 years since then, we’ve demonstrated that’s right,” said McQuown.
Nobel Winners
He’s quick to share credit for the first fund with others.
The president of Wells Fargo, Ransom Cook, hired him and the bank lavished millions on the endeavor. Meanwhile the theories that underpinned index investing were laid out by academics like Harry Markowitz, William Sharpe and Eugene Fama,...