John Zerr, president and CEO of Invesco Canada, has built his career on a foundation of education and service. Now he's looking to highlight those qualities at Invesco as he continues to grow its Canadian business
When John Zerr became the president and CEO of Invesco Canada in March 2019, it was the latest step in his 14-year tenure at the company. A year after taking charge of Invesco’s Canadian division, Zerr is looking to spread awareness about the positive work the company is doing to become known as the industry’s most client-centric asset manager.
Raised in Philadelphia, Zerr absorbed from his parents the value of both education and service to the community. “My mom immigrated to the US from Lithuania after the second World War,” he says. “She was involved in a lot of community activism and services her entire life. My dad was the first in his family to attend college, so education and service together are important to me.”
After earning a bachelor’s degree in economics, Zerr graduated from Temple University’s law school and began his career in the investment management practices group at a law firm. He moved into the financial industry when he joined Delaware Investments in 1994; he later spent 10 years as chief operating officer at Pilgrim Baxter & Associates.
In 2006, his belief in prioritizing education and service led him to Invesco. “What attracted me was Invesco’s culture,” Zerr says. “We’re focused on our clients here at Invesco. The other part is that Invesco offers a global platform. It provides our clients a full range of capabilities beyond just compelling investment strategies and products. That is a unique value proposition. I wanted to be part of that and help grow it.”
Zerr originally joined Invesco as general counsel for its US retail business. In 2018, he was asked to move to the business side and became COO of the Americas before taking on the role of president and CEO of Invesco Canada last year.
“We operate in a highly regulated environment, and importantly, we are fiduciaries,” Zerr says. “I think my legal background has helped me understand that working environment. I found I was able to contribute more fully to achieving Invesco’s purpose on the business side than the legal. I think my legal training and focusing on doing what is right for clients helped me understand how we can be successful. The creativity I sought, combined with the parameters of working in a regulated environment, helped me pick the business side.”
Despite this change of focus, Zerr says his choice of industry was never in doubt. “I have been in financial services my entire life,” he says. “My dad worked for a bank that developed some of the first and largest money market funds, so I was exposed to investment management at a really young age. I particularly liked providing benefits to individual investors and helping people achieve their goals.”
High points
On both the legal and business sides of the industry, Zerr has achieved impressive success. One of his career highlights occurred in 1992–93, when he had the opportunity to go to his mother’s native country to coordinate the US government’s legal assistance to the newly independent government of Lithuania.
“It was a truly incredible experience – an opportunity to do something that helped an emerging democracy and citizenship,” he says. “The role focused on commercial law, the role of law and coordinating with the government. The service aspect – doing something that mattered and helping others – made it a great opportunity.”
Zerr also points to his work on Invesco’s acquisition of OppenheimerFunds as a more recent highlight. Tasked with coordinating the integration of the two companies, he describes the process as a wonderful experience.
“We were able to integrate two businesses and made sure we maintained culture,” he says. “One of the things I learned was that culture absolutely matters, and focusing on the needs of clients during a transaction and through integration also really matters and helps you make the right decision. If you have the right culture and the right guiding star, you get to a good place.”
Zerr says a strong culture runs through Invesco, including the Canadian division, which makes it easier for the company to accomplish its goal of helping advisors help clients.
“We focus our business on meeting our clients’ needs and providing our financial advisors with all the tools necessary to do their very best job for their clients,” he says. “Those things are somewhat unique at Invesco – we bring thought leadership, portfolio consulting services and practice management services to advisors to make them better. They are able to service clients in a more meaningful way. Our view is, if we can develop that focus on the needs of advisors and be one of their partners that helps them grow their business and do well by their clients, we will be successful.”
Canadian expansion
Currently, Invesco is the fourth largest ETF provider in the world and the eighth largest in Canada. “Drawing on our capabilities and bringing them into the Canadian marketplace is what we are focused on,” Zerr says. “We have decades of experience in delivering capabilities, from active and passive to alternatives, around the globe. Doing it through an ETF envelope is in our wheelhouse. We are building a range that will help meet the goals of our clients and their clients.”
Moving forward, Zerr hopes to grow Invesco’s Canadian presence and spread the word that advisors who partner with the company will benefit not only from investment strategies, but a service value proposition as well.
“We want to be that go-to partner for financial advisors because we are helping them be as effective as possible with their clients,” Zerr says. “We have a tremendous number of capabilities to help advisors meet the needs of clients.”
