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James Stowers is the founder and chairman of the highly prominent and highly successful American Century Company, a family of mutual funds which offers various investment options in both domestic and international equity, retirement plans, fixed income and money market securities.
From the 11 initial investors and only +$100,000 in start up money, American Century presently enjoys over 2 million shareholders and an estimated $80 billion of assets.
Stowers is credited for introducing novel investment techniques to the money management industry. Stowers also pioneered a computer program to help the company recognize companies with accelerating revenue and earnings.
James Stowers - A Businessman at Mind and a Philanthropist at Heart
Prior to being the finance leader that he is, James Stowers served in World War 2 as a fighter pilot and studied to become a doctor hoping to follow in his father's footsteps. But Stowers found that he had a talent for sales, which he used to his advantage by creating the American Century Company.
He was initially intrigued by the notion of people pooling their money and then entrusting it to a professional investor to manage their mutual fund. The turning point in Stowers life was when he studied computers and used the technology to his advantage.
He rented an IBM and taught himself programming techniques. He thought up a computer program for calculating revenues and earnings of at least 400 stocks daily. The companies who have a high rate of acceleration in their revenues and earnings were flagged and considered for the funds.
To quote Stowers, I never used momentum. Momentum is a constant speed. We are looking for acceleration. My feeling is the best place to put money is into successful companies where earnings and revenue are accelerating.
Not only is James Stowers a businessman, he is also a philanthropist and a dedicated one at that. Having a wife who was nurse, they both shared the same passion for helping people. Stowers founded the Stowers Institute of Medical Research in Kansas which focuses primarily on cancer research and various gene related diseases.
he James Stowers Quick Bio
Name: James Stowers
Birth date: 1924
Birth place: Missouri
Company: American Century Companies
Industry: Finance
Key success traits: not intimidated by technology and instead used it to found a business, passionate philanthropist.
Additional:
James Stowers stated that his enormous wealth will not be passed on to his children. Instead, Stowers will see to it that the bulk or all of his wealth will go to the Stowers Institute of Medical Research.
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