Fundsters interested in getting to know both John Casey and Casey Quirk, the asset management consultancy he cofounded, should read Julie Segal's Institutional Investor profile of Casey.

The long piece digs into both 75-year-old Casey's own history and the firm's. Some of the tidbits highlighted include: Casey's longstanding connection with Wells Fargo Nikko Investment Advisors, Barclays Global Investors (which bought the Wells business), and BlackRock (which bought BGI); Casey's two pre-RogersCasey pension consulting jobs, helping start PaineWebber's Evaluation Associations on the one hand and later getting fired from Callan Associates on the birthday of his wife, Bridget Casey; the 2000 white paper, "the Complete Firm", that was the genesis of what later became Casey Quirk; and how the asset management industry changed after 2008.

"This industry was a collegial artists' colony where everybody grew," Casey Quirk's Ben Phillips tells II. "Now they have to cross the street and rob the bank — rip away market share from a competitor — to grow."

John Casey even talks to II about his take on BGI's $45-million plan 19 years ago of iShares, now the biggest ETF business in the world.

"Frankly, I thought they were nuts," Casey tells the publication. "I thought the idea was good, but it was so complicated and so many other parties had to be involved that I wasn't sure how they could implement it."

"I was a doubting Thomas," Casey adds, with a caveat about then-BGI CEO Patricia Dunn and Blake Grossman (both part of the group that presented the iShares idea) and then-Barclays CEO Matthew Barrett (who gave the idea the green light). "It was a group of people I wouldn't have bet against."

John and Bridget Casey both chime in for the article, along with a number of colleagues and other industry insiders, including: David Bauer, a former Casey Quirk partner; Jeb Doggett, partner at Casey Quirk; Tom Finke, CEO of Barings; Joe Guastella, head of the global financial services practice at Deloitte (which bought Casey Quirk in 2016); Yariv Itah, managing principal of Casey Quirk; Kevin Quirk, co-founder of Casey Quirk alongside Chris Acito and John Casey; Michelle Seitz, chairman and CEO of Russell Investments; Joe Sullivan, CEO of Legg Mason; and Amanda Walters, senior manager at Casey Quirk. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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