The 2015 Tech 50: John Marcante

The Vanguard Group head of information technology debuts at No. 26 on this year’s Tech 50 ranking.

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< The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge

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26
John Marcante
Head, Information Technology Division
Vanguard Group
PNR

Stressing low operating costs and minimizing brick-and-mortar from its start in 1975, Vanguard Group was “a virtual company before it was cool to be virtual,” says John Marcante, who has worked at the firm since 1993 and has headed its information technology division since 2012. He says that mind-set pervades the culture and informs his approach to IT management. To illustrate what sets the Malvern, Pennsylvania–based, $3 trillion asset manager apart, he points to Personal Advisor Services, a major initiative for retail investors in recent years, pairing automated advice with live assistance. “Computers today provide services like investment advice, asset allocation and rebalancing,” notes Marcante, who led the build-out of the PAS system. “But we combine that with a person to provide peace of mind around moments of truth.” PAS is challenging not only so-called robo-advisers but also traditional human guidance. “Technology is best when we bring the power of people to it,” the 50-year-old adds. On the institutional side, to better serve plan sponsors, his team has developed data analytics and visualization tools to track such defined-contribution-plan indicators as savings and participation rates. The firm is also marrying technology with behavioral finance concepts to help participants with retirement planning. The demand for product and application development requires the IT division to be nimble and test software quickly before going live, says Marcante, who studied business and computer science at Pennsylvania State University and has an MBA from St. Joseph’s University. In 1998, five years after joining Vanguard from General Electric Co., Marcante became head of technology for the institutional business. Three years later he took over global technology operations, focusing on disaster recovery and data center management in the wake of 9/11. In 2006 he switched over to the business side as head of asset management services.

See the full story, “The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge.”


The 2015 Tech 50

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1. Jeffrey Sprecher
Intercontinental Exchange

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2. Catherine Bessant
Bank of America Corp.

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3. Phupinder Gill
CME Group

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4. Lance Uggla
Markit

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5. Robert Goldstein
BlackRock

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6. Shawn Edwards &
Vlad Kliatchko
Bloomberg

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7. R. Martin Chavez
Goldman Sachs Group

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8. Deborah Hopkins
Citi Ventures

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9. Stephen Neff
Fidelity Investments

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10. Adena Friedman
Nasdaq OMX Group

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11. David Craig
Thomson Reuters

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12. Daniel Coleman
KCG Holdings

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13. Michael Spencer
ICAP

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14. Michael Bodson
Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.

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15. Charles Li
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing

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16. Chris Concannon
BATS Global Markets

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17. Christopher Perretta
State Street Corp.

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18. Antoine Shagoury
London Stock Exchange Group

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19. Kevin Rhein
Wells Fargo & Co.

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20. Neil Katz
D.E. Shaw & Co.

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21. Lee Olesky
Tradeweb Markets

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22. Richard McVey
MarketAxess Holdings

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23. Seth Merrin
Liquidnet Holdings

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24. Robert Alexander
Capital One Financial Corp.

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25. Frank Bisignano
First Data Corp.

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26. John Marcante
Vanguard Group

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27. Joseph Squeri
Citadel

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28. Lou Eccleston
TMX Group

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29. Claude Honegger
Credit Suisse

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30. Chris Corrado
MSCI

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31. David Gledhill
DBS Bank

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32. John Bates
Software AG

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33. Michael Cooper
BT Radianz

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34. Gary Scholten
Principal Financial Group

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35. Sunil Hirani
trueEX Group

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36. Hauke Stars
Deutsche BÖrse

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37. Brian Conlon
First Derivatives

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38. Jim Minnick
eVestment

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39. Lars Seier Christensen & Kim Fournais

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40. Tyler Kim
MaplesFS

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41. Jim McGuire
Charles Schwab Corp.

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42. Steven O’Hanlon
Numerix

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43. Sebastián Ceria
Axioma

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44. Yasuki Okai
NRI Holdings America

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45. Stephane Dubois
Xignite

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46. Mazy Dar
OpenFin

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47. Brian Sentance
Xenomorph Software

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48. Mas Nakachi
OpenGamma

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49. John Lehner
BNY Mellon Technology Solutions Group

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50. Jock Percy
Perseus


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