Robert Pozen


Robert Charles Pozen known as "Bob" is an American financial executive with a strong interest in public policy. Pozen currently teaches executives about how to be more productive and serves as an executive coach and mentor, www.bobpozen.com . He is the former chairman of MFS Investment Management, the oldest mutual fund company in the United States. Previously, Pozen was the President of Fidelity Investments. As of 2020 he is a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Education and family

Pozen grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he attended public high school and won a scholarship to attend Harvard College. In 1968, he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard, which awarded him a Knox Traveling Fellowship.
In 1972, Pozen received a law degree from Yale Law School, where he served on the editorial board of the Yale Law Journal. He received a JSD from Yale in 1973 for his doctoral thesis on state enterprises in Africa. He is a member of the Massachusetts, New York and Washington, D.C. bars.
He has been married for more than 40 years to Elizabeth Kelner Pozen, a psychotherapist and figurative painter. They live in Boston, Massachusetts, and have two adult children.

Investment industry career

Pozen was an executive at Fidelity Investments from 1987 to 2001, eventually rising to vice chairman of the company and president of FMR Co., the investment adviser to Fidelity’s mutual funds. In the latter role, he had oversight of Fidelity’s global portfolio management and research teams; during his tenure as president, Fidelity’s assets under management increased from $500 billion to $900 billion. He also was a director of Fidelity’s insurance company and credit card bank.
Pozen became chairman of MFS Investment Management in February 2004. In that position, he advised the firm on strategic initiatives and long-term planning. Speaking on corporate governance, he has been credited with enhancing the organization’s legal, audit, and risk functions. He retired as Chairman in July 2010 and was Chairman Emeritus through 2011. In 2011, he was recognized for his work in the mutual fund industry with the Fund Action Lifetime Achievement Award.

Productivity and Executive Coaching Work

Pozen currently teaches courses on "Maximzing your Productivity" for corporations around the globe as well as for the MIT Executive Education program. Pozen's website can be found at www.bobpozen.com. Pozen is also an executive coach, a role he started actively playing in 2019. His teachings are based on his 2019 research published by MIT News, "How does your productivity stack up? Survey results and research by MIT Sloan’s Bob Pozen reveal common habits and skills among highly productive managers". In 2012, Pozen published his book "Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours" which set the foundation for his coursework. In 2018, Pozen's work on Productivity at MIT was one of the top rated stories of the year.

Teaching positions

In December 2019, MIT announced the Miriam Pozen Prize to recognize outstanding financial policy research or practices. Pozen is funding the $200,000 prize, MIT’s first in the financial policy area. It will be given every other year, starting in the spring of 2020.

Public service

In addition to his private sector and teaching posts, Pozen has dedicated time during his career to public service. He was Associate General Counsel for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 1977 to 1980.
In 2001 and 2002, he served as a member of President George W. Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. His proposal for utilizing a "progressive indexing" methodology to address Social Security’s long-term solvency issue received national attention, including a mention during President Bush's 2006 State of the Union address.
At the state level, Pozen served as Secretary of Economic Affairs in 2003 under then-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney during a time of economic uncertainty after the 2001 US recession. Pozen was responsible for all economic-related areas, including banking, technology, consumer affairs, insurance, and labor.
In 2007, Pozen served as chairman of the SEC's Committee to Improve Financial Reporting. Working with both private and public sector experts, the committee made several actionable recommendations to improve the U.S. financial reporting system, many of which have been implemented.

Boards/memberships

Selected books