For Release
First Distinguished Executive in Residence Named at USC's Moore School
August 26, 2005
Columbia, S.C. - John W. Bachmann, senior partner of the Edward Jones securities firm and immediate past chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has joined the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business as the school’s first Distinguished Executive in Residence.
Bachmann, famous for building the St. Louis-based firm into an investment giant, will be involved in a number of activities during the fall semester. These will include team-teaching graduate courses in finance and investments, meeting with prospective graduates about career opportunities in financial services, helping to develop a research institute for the business school’s Finance Department, and taking part in a faculty research project on sustainable competitive advantage.
“We are very excited that John Bachmann is joining us this fall,” said Joel A. Smith III, dean of the Moore School. “In my view, he represents the best of American business at a time when we need strong role models.”
Bachmann has guest lectured at the Moore School several times during the past few years. He spoke to Moore students as the first guest of the 2005-2006 Wachovia Speakers Series. “We’ve gotten to know him and he’s gotten to know us,” Smith said. Bachmann will spend fall semesters on the Columbia campus.
As managing partner of Edward Jones from 1980 through 2003, Bachmann led the firm – the only U.S. company to serve individual investors exclusively – through an aggressive expansion, growing it from 304 offices in 28 states to more than 9,000 offices throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. He also introduced a number of technological innovations, such as a satellite network for live company broadcasts that air in all branch offices.
Bachmann, who went to work for Edward Jones in 1959 as a part-time messenger, was the first managing partner who was not a member of the Jones family. He stepped down from that post in December 2003.
In 2002 and 2003, Edward Jones was ranked No. 1 in Fortune magazine’s annual listing of “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America, and it received similar honors from Canadian publications. The company also was ranked
Bachman served as chairman of the Securities Industry Association in 1987 and 1988, the first person ever asked to serve successive terms. He is currently chairman of the Executive Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; a director of AMR Corporation, American Airlines, Inc; a director of the Monsanto Company; and a director of the National Association of Security Dealers. He is a former member of the board of governors of the Chicago Stock Exchange and has served on the Regional Firms Advisory Board of the New York Stock Exchange.
Bachmann is active in the civic community of St. Louis, where he has been campaign chairman of the United Way of Greater St. Louis, chairman of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and chairman of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association. He is currently a trustee of Washington University in St. Louis and a commissioner of the St. Louis Science Center.
Bachmann is married to Katharine (Kay) Butler, who is a professor in the School of Law at the University of South Carolina.