E. Blake Moore Jr., the president and CEO of Touchstone Investments, has come full circle. He now runs an asset management firm in the town, Cincinnati, where he began his pro football career over four decades ago.
He played in the NFL as an offensive lineman in the early 1980s — four seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals (including a trip to the Super Bowl in 1982) and two more years with the Green Bay Packers before retiring in 1985.
Moore, who would later secure a degree from Harvard Law School before joining the ranks of asset management, said his career on the gridiron helps him in his current role.
“The discipline and rigor required to compete in the high-pressure NFL helped shape my career and leadership style long after football,” he said. “The NFL demands the very best out of each player each week, so as an undrafted free agent rookie at tryouts, I knew I had to deliver above-average effort and results to survive the training camp cuts and make the roster.”
Moore learned quickly that being “average” in the NFL was never going to be good enough.
“The same applies to the asset management industry, where our clients are relying on us to beat the benchmarks and deliver returns that enable them to meet their financial goals,” he added. “If all we do is deliver average returns, we should expect our clients to cut us and find a better-than-average manager.”
Moore indicated that he always saw football as a “fun” endeavor, not as an end in itself.
“I went to a Division III school (College of Wooster in Ohio) without a scholarship and I didn't start thinking about possibly playing in the NFL until my junior or senior year of college,” he noted. “Even when I started training camp at the Bengals, I was all set up to go to law school out of college and pursue a career in law or business.”
After graduating from Harvard Law in 1989, Moore held various executive roles at a number of major firms, including Allianz Global Investors and UBS Global Asset Management, before taking the top job at Touchstone in 2020.
Moore wouldn’t be surprised if more pro athletes followed in his footsteps.
“While I can’t say that asset management will be a perfect fit for every former athlete, many of us are alike in our competitive nature, drive for success, and pressure to outperform,” he said. “An athlete’s competitive drive and desire to win, combined with the discipline to put in the hard work required to succeed, can play well in our business, whether in a sales-oriented position or portfolio management role.”
Touchstone, which manages a number of active mutual funds and ETFs, has about $28.9 billion in assets under management.
