During the financial meltdown in 2008, T. Rowe Price [profile] vice chairman Ed Bernard picked up a new hobby: crossword puzzles. Bernard made this revelation in an interview with his alma mater.

"It's relaxing, but requires enough focus to crowd out everything else," Bernard told Caroline Schimmelbusch of The Stern Opportunity, the publication of New York University's Stern School of Business.

"After the worst of the crisis was over, I still kept it up," he said, adding: "Especially when work is hectic, it's important to periodically get away and create space for yourself, even if it's just for half an hour with a crossword."

The 24-year T. Rowe veteran -- who obtained his MBA from NYU in 1982 -- is in charge of distribution, sales, client service, technology and communciations at the Baltimore-based mutual fund firm.

In the interview, Bernard also weighed in on topics such as the possible implications of the Volcker Rule for asset managers.

"Typically when we introduce a new fund, in order for the portfolio manager to start building a track record, we will seed it with our own capital, which may be as low as $5 or 6 million. Volcker would essentially prohibit that for funds outside the U.S. We could seed it, but after a year, our holdings could not be more than three percent of the portfolio. But a new fund may or may not attract new buyers in the first year, because it has to prove its performance first. So, unintentionally, Volcker will make it more difficult for asset managers to do business around the world," he said. 

Edited by: Armie Margaret Lee


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