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The Capital Group Companies is one of the world’s largest investment management organizations with assets of around one trillion USD under management. It comprises a group of investment management companies, including Capital Research and Management, American Funds, Capital Bank and Trust, Capital Guardian, and Capital International. As measured by assets under management, Capital rivals Fidelity Investments, a figure the company will not confirm because it eschews publicity.^[1] The firm was founded in 1931 by Jonathan Bell Lovelace.

The Founding Years[link]

Jonathan Bell Lovelace was raised in Southern Alabama by a family who was in the timber business. He initially studied to become an architect at what was then Alabama Polytechnic (Currently Auburn University). After college, he enlisted in the military, working on a project that pioneered anti-aircraft artillery.^[2] Lovelace worked with E.E. MacCrone & Company, eventually becoming a partner. In 1929, Lovelace believed the stock market to be wildly overvalued and sold his stake in the company. In 1931, he founded an investment firm, Lovelace, Dennis & Renfrew, what would eventually become the Capital Group Companies. The early company was a model of efficiency, with communications between Los Angeles and New York being hugely expensive.

Overview[link]

Capital Group is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and has over 7,000 associates in 23 office locations around the globe, including offices in London, Geneva, Sydney, Toronto, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Singapore. The company also has a large newly built campus in Irvine, California, making it one of the largest employers in that city. Due to the recent decline in the markets and economy, the company has reduced its staff by over 1,500 from the previous high of 9,000 associates. Its families of mutual funds include "American Funds" and "Capital International Funds." On the institutional side, Capital manages money for pensions, governments, and other entities worldwide. It also manages money for wealthy individuals and engages in private equity investments. One of its subsidiaries, Capital International, was responsible for the construction of the MSCI stock market indices. The Capital Group was voted as the third-most satisfactory workplace in the Greater Los Angeles area by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2006.^[3]

The American Funds, managed by the Capital Group Companies was as of June 2007 the largest family of mutual funds in the US, followed by The Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments, with roughly $1.3 trillion in assets under management^{[citation needed]}.

In 2008, Capital Research and Management Company implemented the disaggregation of its equity investment operations to become known as Capital Research Global Investors and Capital World Investors.

A study published in September, 2009 in the scientific journal Physical Review E on the topic of new network analysis methodologies in economics concluded — in the course of presenting an example — that The Capital Group was the most powerful controlling shareholder in the global stock market, with major stakes in 36 of the 48 countries studied.^[4]

Capital Group is organized into tiers of subsidiaries, one of which is the wholly owned Capital Guardian Trust Company, which in turn manages the division, Personal Investment Management, founded in 1974 to manage the assets of employees and retirees of The Capital Group Companies.^[5]

Executives[link]

David I. Fisher – chairman of the board of Capital Group International, Inc. and Capital Guardian Trust Company [6]

Shaw B. Wagener – chairman of Capital International, Inc.[7]

James Rothenberg – chairman of Capital Research & Management Co.[8]

Investments[link]

[edit] Asia

[edit] Australia

• Amcor LTD. (9.42%)

[edit] China

• BYD Co LTD. (9.92%)

[edit] Singapore

• ST Engineering (5.5005)^[6]

[edit] Europe

[edit] Austria

• Telekom Austria Group (7.94 %) ^[7]

[edit] Germany

• Bayer AG (10.018 %) ^[8]
• Bijou Brigitte (3.0025 %) ^[9]
• Böwe Systec AG (5.10 %)
• Continental AG (5.10 %) ^[10]
• Deutsche Bank (3.08 %) ^[11]
• Fraport AG (5.07 %) ^[12]
• GEA Group AG (4.985 %) ^[13]
• Infineon Technologies AG (4.10 %) ^[14]
• Linde AG (ca. 10 % Beteiligung) ^[15]
• SAP AG (3.19 %) ^[16]
• Siemens AG (3.02 %) ^[17]
• Volkswagen AG (4.097 % Beteiligung, 5,6 % Stimmrechte) ^[18]

[edit] Netherlands

• Akzo Nobel (9.94%) ^[19]
• ASML (8.8%) ^[20]
• KPN Telecom (10.68%) ^[21]

[edit] Russia

• Rambler (3.29%)

[edit] Switzerland

• Geberit AG (5.0518 %) ^[22]
• mobilezone holding ag (4,99 %) ^[23]

[edit] Greece

• OPAP (11,5439 %)
• Ellaktor (5,70 %)
• Titan Cement (5,00 %)
• Jumbo Stores (9,00 %)
• Fourlis Holding (9,86 %)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Capital Group website
• American Funds website
• Capital International Funds website

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Steve Blank is a Silicon Valley-based retired serial entrepreneur, founding and/or part of 8 startup companies in California’s Silicon Valley. A prolific educator, thought leader and writer on Customer Development for Startups, Blank teaches, refines, writes and blogs on “Customer Development,” a rigorous methodology he developed to bring the “scientific method” to the typically chaotic, seemingly disorganized startup process.^[1]

Now teaching Entrepreneurship at three major Universities and the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps), Blank co-founded his first of eight startups after several years repairing fighter plane electronics in Thailand during the Vietnam War, followed by several years of defense electronics work for U.S. intelligence agencies in “undisclosed locations.”

Blank's first book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany," detailed the Customer Development process and remains required reading among entrepreneurs, investors, and established companies alike, when the focus is optimizing a startup’s chances for scalability and success. Blank views entrepreneurship as a practice that can be managed rather than purely an art form to be experienced.^[2]

"The Startup Owner’s Manual" was Blank's second book and is a step-by-step guide to building a successful startup, offering practical advice for any startup founder, entrepreneur, investor or educator.

His Customer Development methodology launched the lean startup movement. It is rooted on startups "getting out of the building," talking to customers and using that feedback to develop and refine their product.

Business career[link]

Subsequent to dropping out of the University of Michigan, Steve Blank arrived in Silicon Valley in 1978, as boom times began. His early startups include two semiconductor companies, Zilog and MIPS Computers (now MIPS Technologies); Convergent Technologies; a consulting stint for Pixar; a supercomputer firm, Ardent Computer; peripheral supplier, SuperMac Technologies; a military intelligence systems supplier, ESL; Rocket Science Games.^[3] Steve co-founded startup number eight, E.piphany, in his living room in 1996. After retiring from E.piphany the day before its IPO in September 1999, Blank served on two public boards (Macrovision and Immersion) and several private companies. He continues to selectively invest and advise Silicon Valley startups such as Votizen.

Teaching[link]

After 21 years driving 8 high technology startups, today Steve teaches entrepreneurship to both undergraduate and graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business,^[4] Stanford University Graduate School of Engineering,^[5] and a joint MBA class with Berkeley Haas and Columbia Business School.^[6] His “Customer Development” teaching and writing coalesce and codify his experiences and observations of entrepreneurs in action, including his own and those he advises.

In 2009, he earned the Stanford University Undergraduate Teaching Award in Management Science and Engineering. The same year, The San Jose Mercury News listed him as one of the 10 Influencers in Silicon Valley.^[7] In 2010, he was earned the Earl F. Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award at U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business.^[8]

In January 2011, he launched a new class at Stanford University, The Lean LaunchPad.^[9] It teaches aspiring entrepreneurs all aspects of building a business, including business model design, customer and agile development, and design thinking.^[10] In July 2011, the National Science Foundation adopted the Lean Launchpad as the curriculum for its Innovation-Corps, an incubator for 100 science and engineering teams each year.^[11]

In May 2011, Blank was the commencement speaker at Philadelphia University ^[12]

In 2012, The Harvard Business Review named Blank one of 12 Masters of Innovation in recognition of his work in bringing the “greatest clarity to the field of innovation.”^[13]

Blank has collected an informal history of Silicon Valley, which was presented as a Google TechTalk and a talk at the Computer History Museum called The Secret History of Silicon Valley.^[14][15][16]

Public service[link]

Blank is the past Chairman of Audubon California.^[17] And has been on the board of Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST).^[18] And was a trustee of U.C. Santa Cruz. Blank is currently on the board of the California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV). In 2007 he was appointed to the California Coastal Commission.^[19][20] He has made major gifts to preserve the California Coast, including funding the visitors center at Año Nuevo State Reserve.^[21][22][23]

Books[link]

Blank, Steve (2012). The Startup Owner's Manual. K&S Ranch Press. ISBN 0984999302. 

Blank, Steven Gary. Four Steps to the Epiphany. K&S Ranch Press. 

Blank, Steven Gary. Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost. CafePress.com. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• Steven Gary Blank's blog
• Steve Blank Coastal Commissioner
• Steve Blank Stanford Lecturer
• Steve Blank Haas Lecturer
• Steve Blank's "Secret History of Silicon Valley"
• Steve Blank speaking at Stanford University
• Steve Blank's Customer Development podcast

Christopher Sacca
Chris Sacca at Defrag 2009 in Denver

Christopher Sacca is a venture investor, public speaker, private equity adviser, and former employee of Google Inc. He is an investor in Twitter.^[1]

Education[link]

Beginning in 6th grade, Chris attended the State University of New York at Buffalo for six years of graduate-level mathematics classes.^[2]

Chris graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center where he was a member of The Tax Lawyer law review and was honored as the school’s Philip A. Ryan and Ralph J. Gilbert Memorial Scholar. He also graduated cum laude from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and was an Edmund Evans Memorial Scholar as well as a Weeks Family Foundation Scholar.

During his studies, Chris attended university at each of Universidad Católica del Ecuador in Quito, Ecuador, University College Cork, in Cork, Ireland, and the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain

Career[link]

Google[link]

Chris served as Head of Special Initiatives at Google Inc. At Google he led the alternative access and wireless divisions. His most publicly visible projects include Google’s 700 MHz and TV white spaces spectrum initiatives, Google's data center in Oregon, and Google’s free citywide WiFi network in Mountain View, California. Chris also spearheaded many of Google’s business development and M&A transactions. He was on the founding team of the company’s New Business Development organization.^[3]

Lowercase Capital[link]

Chris manages a holding company, Lowercase Capital. The portfolio consists mainly of consumer web, mobile, and wireless technology startups.^[4]

Philanthropy[link]

Chris dedicates much of his time to helping the following causes: charity: water, Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG Foundation, and The Tony Hawk Foundation.

References[link]

External links[link]

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