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DEL.ICIO.USInvesco is home at last
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Invesco can now openly call Atlanta home.
As of last summer, Invesco became a U.S. company rather than one owned by investors from the United Kingdom. Once more than 50 percent of its ownership came from the United States, Invesco was able to bring its primary listing here.
But in reality, Invesco has been here all along.
The company’s roots date back to 1978 when the money management firm split off from Citizens & Southern National Bank. The one constant was Charles Brady, who ran the operation for the bank and then was CEO of the new company.
At today’s annual meeting at the Walter Hill Auditorium, Brady was sitting on one of the back rows listening to Martin Flanagan, Invesco’s current CEO, message to shareholders.
“We’ve finally goten to where we should have been all along,” Brady said after the meeting. “This was not the first time that we tried to move the headquarters.”
Back in the mid 1980s, Brady and his partners sold off the company to U.K. investors. But Brady remained as head of the U.S. business, and he continued to make Atlanta his base.
“We’ve always been here,” said Brady, who is Invesco’s chairman emeritus. “The Brits just didn’t know it.”
Now, Invesco will be moving its headquarters a few blocks north to John Dewberry’s development at Peachtree Pointe. Of its 5,600 global employees, nearly 320 are based in Atlanta.
Meanwhile, Brady, who is spending most of his time in Atlanta rather than traveling, is pleased with how Flanagan is running the company. Despite the tough market conditions, Invesco is outperforming its competitors.
“He’s doing great,” Brady said of Flanagan. “I spent a long time looking for somebody.”
The current non-executive chairman of Invesco is Rex Adams, dean of the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
As he was walking up the aisle after the meeting, Adams said to Brady: “We finally made it home.”
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