Russell - Corporate timeline | Russell Investments

Corporate timeline
Highlights of the company's evolution in investment services

1936 — Local businessman Frank Russell starts a small brokerage firm in Tacoma, Washington.

1958 — George Russell joins his grandfather's firm. He becomes president three months later, upon Frank's death. The company employs three people, including George.

1969 — George pioneers a new industry — strategic pension fund consulting — when he demonstrates his money manager evaluation process during a sales call to J.C. Penney and secures the giant U.S. retailer as his first client. More than 30 years later, J.C. Penney remains a client. Fueled by George's new idea, Russell begins managing money managers, instead of managing money, and opens a New York office to expand the concept nationally.

1974 — Russell's institutional consulting business grows from a single client to 40 major U.S. clients, including IBM, AT&T and General Motors.

1979 — Russell initiates its global presence with the opening of a London office.

1980 — Russell launches its investment management business, leveraging its research of outside managers to create a manager-of-managers investment process for smaller retirement plans and their employees.

1982 — Russell researchers create the Russell 1000®, Russell 2000®,and Russell 3000® Indexes as objective benchmarks for evaluating manager performance.

1986 — Russell opens an office in Tokyo, Japan, which has the second largest pension system behind the United States, and opens an office in Sydney, Australia, expanding to its fourth continent.

1990 — George Russell names Mike Phillips president; and in 1992, names him chief executive officer of Frank Russell Company.

1997 — Russell's consulting business surpasses NZ$3 trillion in represented assets.

1998 — Russell Australia launches the Russell Multi Manager Unit Trusts and Russell Implemented Consulting.

1999 — Russell's global office network — which already includes the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand — expands to Singapore.

Northwestern Mutual, the largest provider of individual life insurance in the U.S., acquires Russell. The company retains its name, management, office locations, and investment approach.

2001 — Russell receives honors as Fortune magazine's 13th Best Company to work for in America for the second consecutive year.

2003 — Craig Ueland is appointed President of Russell on 1 July 2003 and will also become Chief Executive Officer from 1 January 2004. Mike Phillips will remain Chairman.

2005 — Russell receives Lonsec's only "highly recommended multi-manager" rating and has maintained a 'highly recommended' or 'recommended' rating ever since.

2007 — Russell launches a global index series. Russell opens office in Seoul, Korea.

2009 — Through growth and acquisition, Russell's total assets under management reach US$136 billion globally. Andrew Doman is hired as the fifth CEO to serve in Russell's 73 year history and confirms Russell's commitment to providing consulting to large institutional investors.

2011 — This year Russell is celebrating 75 years of serving our global clients. Over the course of our history our innovations have come to define many of the practices that are standard in the investment world today. These have earned Russell Investments a reputation for excellence and leadership.