Emerging markets veteran closes in on 80 but has no plans to retire
Mark Mobius says age does not make fund managers wiser
Emerging markets guru Mark Mobius will turn 80 this August but he says he has no plans to retire, joking that he’s aiming for the Guinness world record as the oldest fund manager.
On Friday, he will relinquish day-to-day management work to chief investment officer Stephen Dover, but he’ll continue to act as executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group.
“It does not make sense for me to retire or to have vacation,” he said. “I enjoy my work so I will just keep going to work and invest for the investors. I may delegate some daily operational work to my colleagues but I won’t retire.
“I learn something new every day. It is so much fun to travel around the world visiting different markets and different companies.”
Mobius was born in New York in 1936, the son of a German migrant. He opted to abandon his US citizenship about 18 years ago and became a German citizen.
I found out if you are a fund manager you can visit many different countries and study many different companies, which was what I like to do
“I travel around the world, about 200 days a year, and have always been away from America,” he said. “ A German citizen can travel easily internationally, particularly to some emerging markets. Some market, such as Cuba, did not allow US citizens to travel there.”