President, Corporate Operations
Fidelity Investments
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Being privately held, Fidelity Investments is selective in disclosing such corporate facts as its $1.6 trillion in managed assets and its customer base of 20 million individuals and institutions. To Stephen Scullen, private ownership translates into “the freedom to take a long-term view and make bets where there may not be immediate payback.” That could very well be the envy of many a top financial technology executive. “We can try things that may not work,” notes Scullen, 57, who in the past year made the transition from president of  Boston-based Fidelity’s personal and workplace investing group to the new position of president, corporate operations. He says Fidelity has 10,000 employees in technology, and the firm boasts many financial industry firsts: serving customers via personal computers, the Internet and wireless devices, and adopting cloud computing. But it also made a forgettable early 2000s gamble on WebTV. Scullen oversees the full gamut of the firm’s global technology, along with the asset management back-office and processing operations. He believes decentralization is the best route to business flexibility but also applies “a strong business viewpoint” when scale and efficiencies can be achieved. While eschewing “technology for technology’s sake,” Scullen says he spends half  his time scanning the horizon in search of future “disruptive innovations.”