George F. Russell Jr., 66
Chairman, Frank Russell Co. since 1958, when he took over his grandfather's small brokerage and mutual fund company and transformed it into one of the world's leading investment consulting and investment management companies.
"In the future, there will be no more defined benefit plans. That will occur well before the next 100 years. All the plans will be defined contribution. The trend of corporations stepping away from taking accountability of performance of pension funds will continue. Everyone in the world will have to be his own CFO. That means there needs to be an enormous amount of education for at least 90% of the people around the world.
"As individuals become their own CFOs, they will have to take some of their own money to invest. They will face tax issues. You will see the development by the mutual fund industry of a host of tax-sensitive, tax-friendly investments.
"In 100 years, there will be 10 billion people in the world. There are 6 billion now.
"It will be an amazing and enormous challenge to get people out of poverty. The only way the 21st century will be a safer place for human beings . . . will be if some form of democracy -- not necessarily our form -- and some form of market economy are adopted around the world to narrow the gap between the haves and have-nots."
