The drumbeat that Rodger Lawson is a short-timer at Fidelity is growing louder despite denials from the spokepeople at the Boston Behemoth. Friday morning the Wall Street Journal picked up the story of Lawson's future, an article that was quickly also carried by the Boston Herald. Stories of Lawson's possible departure also ran three weeks ago. Industry sources have been talking of possible changes in Fidelity's top ranks since the early Spring.

Fidelity spokesperson Anne Crowley has denied that the plans for Lawson are set in stone each time the reports have broken into the papers.

"I don't envision that Rodger is leaving any time soon" and he "is not about to be fired," she told the WSJ.

The paper reports that a "long-time acquantance" of Lawson told it that Lawson "would like to leave between now and the end of the year" and that he "wants to wait until the Johnson family has a successor lined up." The paper added that Lawson may be unhappy with "potential second-guessing by the Johnson family."

The report is bolstered by Bill Holodnak, president of J. Robert Scott, who went on the record telling the paper that he had recently conducted a search for potential successors to Lawson, though the search was not for a direct replacement for Lawson. J. Robert Scott is owned by Fidelity. That search completed about a month ago and identified several good candidates, he told the paper. 

Edited by: Sean Hanna, Editor in Chief


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