With Bob Reynolds possible heading out the door to take the NFL's commissioner job from Paul Tagliabue, the Boston papers have already started to speculate on who will take his place at Ned Johnson's right hand. The 54-year-old Reynolds is Fidelity Investments chief operating officer and vice chairman and is seen by some as a potential successor to Johnson, assuming that is, that Abigail Johnson does not get the job.

Both the Boston Globe and Boston Herald point to two lead candidates to fill Reynold's shoes: Stephen Jonas, executive director of Fidelity Management & Research, and Ellyn McColgan, president of Fidelity Brokerage Group.

The two executives are following different paths to Fidelity's top floor. Jonas has raised his profile at the helm of the fund shops asset management arm. However, McColgan has built her reputation in the operational sides of the firm and put in time at the firm's core retirement services business before taking over its brokerage division. That operational experience, which is similar to Reynold's, may give her the edge.

Our bet would be on McColgan.

The real question is whether Reynolds would leave Fidelity to take the top job at the NFL (assuming it is offered to him at all). While the NFL probable cannot match Johnson's paycheck (nearly a decade ago Pensions & Investments speculated that Reynolds earned $6 million a year), it does provide a much higher profile than even the top job a Fidelity, a notoriously media shy organization under the Johnsons. It would also move him out of the family shadow, though the shadows cast by 32 owners would provide their own challenges.

While Reynolds is still running the shop it is a safe bet that he is unhappy with the firm;s June cash flows. Fidelity led all fund firms with outflows of $4.6 billion, according to FRC, Bisys' research unit. The outflows, which do not include shifts to Fidelity's money funds, were nearly four times the $1.2 billion drain from the coffers of Putnam Investments', the second firm on June's list.

Meanwhile, State Street Global Advisors rode its exchange-traded fund products to $5.9 billion in net inflows for the past month. That figure pushed it past May's leader, American Funds, which saw $3.1 billion in net inflows, according to the FRC data. 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE