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Ex Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb

Industry Spotlight > Clearing and Custodial Firms

Ex-Vanguard CEO Joins VC Firm as Advisor

By Jeff Berman

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William McNabb, who served as Vanguard CEO and chairman, has joined venture capital firm Venrock as an advisor.

McNabb was with Vanguard for over 30 years and became its CEO in 2008. He served as its CEO from 2008 to 2017 and its chairman from 2010 to 2018.

During his time at Vanguard, McNabb steered its growth from $1 trillion in assets under management to $5 trillion, Venrock said at its website.

McNabb “pushed Vanguard to be more aggressive in embracing and adopting new technologies and that ended up being an important differentiator for Vanguard,” Venrock said.

Prior to joining Venrock as an advisor, McNabb served on the boards of Venrock portfolio companies Altruist and estate planning firm Vanilla. He also serves on the boards of Axiom, IBM and United Healthcare.

While joining the Altruist board in 2021, McNabb made an investment in the Los Angeles-based digital brokerage firm. Altruist provides custodial and clearing services, as well as investing and other tools; it is pushing to compete with larger players in the field, such as Charles Schwab,

Venrock led the Altruist funding round and included what Altruist said at the time was “significant participation” from personal investments by McNabb and Ron Carson, CEO and chairman of Carson Group, as well as an unidentified strategic third-party investor.

In August 2021, Vanilla announced it raised $11.6 million in a Series A funding round led by Venrock. McNabb was among the participants in the capital raise and joined Vanilla’s board at the time.

McNabb “continues to have a passion for emerging technology on the cutting edge of wealth management,” Venrock said.

“Entrepreneurs need every edge they can get to build a large, sustainable business,” Venrock said. The firm’s team “has a long history of rolling up our sleeves to provide every advantage possible to our portfolio, including expanding our team with advisors who are leaders and innovators in their field and can accelerate a company’s trajectory,” it added.

Jeff Berman

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