A fundster trade group's longest-serving board member, a retired firm chief, died last week.

the late John F. Cogan, Jr. 1926-2020

Jack Cogan, chairman emeritus of Boston-based Amundi Pioneer Investment Management USA and of the Pioneer Funds, passed away last Friday, January 24, Amundi Pioneer U.S. CEO Lisa Jones confirms today in a letter to clients. He was 93 years old.

The Boston Globe reported on Cogan's death.

Before he was a fundster, John F. Cogan, Jr. was a lawyer. Cogan graduated from Harvard, twice. In 1952, fresh out of Harvard Law School, he joined the law firm Hale and Dorr (now called WilmerHale), where he eventually served as chairman and managing partner.

It was in the 1950s, while at Hale & Dorr, that Cogan started working with Pioneer's founder, Philip Carret. Cogan organized an investor buyout of Pioneer in 1963, while keeping Carret on as a fund PM. Yet Cogan stayed on at Hale & Dorr, too, rising to managing partner in 1976 and then shifting to chairman in 1984.

For 35 years, Cogan led Pioneer Group (Amundi Pioneer's predecessor), through its 1978 IPO and its sale to Unicredit in 2000. He stayed on as chairman of Pioneer Investment Management USA (the U.S. holding company) through 2013, then as chairman emeritus (even through the 2017 sale to Amundi). He served as chairman of the Pioneer Funds until 2012, and in 2014 he retired altogether from the funds' board, shifting to chairman emeritus.

"For all who came to know Jack, we have had the pleasure and privilege of learning from him, and being the beneficiaries of his deep caring for our company and all who work here," Jones writes in her letter to clients. "Jack contributed greatly to all meetings he attended, drawing form his experience and knowledge, and his deep commitment to the role culture plays in our organization. I have learned a great deal from Jack and he will be deeply missed by all."

Later, during his tenure at Pioneer, Cogan took a leadership role with the Investment Company Institute (ICI). He joined ICI's board of governors in October 1971 and stayed on for 42 years (including 37 years on the executive committee), eventually retiring from the board in January 2014. He even spent two years in the late 1970s as chairman of ICI.

"As the longest-service member of ICI's Board of Governors, Jack Cogan was a powerful voice for effective regulation and strong service to the 100 million Americans who invest in regulated funds," states Paul Schott Stevens, president and CEO of ICI. "His wisdom, long experience, and breadth of knowledge carried enormous weight with his peers, and on many occasions a few words from Jack could clarify the thorniest of issues and show the way forward. In his unfailing commitment to the interests of shareholders and the fund industry as a whole, Jack embodied the highest fiduciary ideals of investment management."

Cogan also previously served with the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD, the precursor to Finra) as a governor-at-large. There, he chaired the regulatory agency's investment companies and ad hoc financial planners committees.

Outside of work, Cogan remained involved with both Harvard Law School (see this interview from 2010) and Harvard University's art museum. He was also: a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; chairman emeritus of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; vice chairman and life trustee of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; trustee and former chairman of the University hospital; and director of the Walker Home for Children. He loved classical music and collected contemporary art. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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