Mutual fund columnists mostly ignored Ed Owens when he was building his impressive track record at Vanguard [profile] Health Care, now they are paying him kudos.

After a flurry of press coverage last week, both Chuck Jaffe at MarketWatch and Steven Syre at the Boston Globe have devoted columns to Owens.

Syre writes that Owens will "take the best record in a competitive industry with him" when he hands the portfolio over to new PM Jean Hynes at the end of the year.

Syre also scores an interview with Owens, who turns out to be quite bland. Explaining his track record he states: "It was kind of a boring strategy at any one point in time."

Owens' parting tip:

"I think over the next 10 or 15 years, most of the growth is going to come from oncology," he said. Also, "the biggest untapped market we have is Alzheimer's, which is just waiting for the right product." Recent clinical results for potential Alzheimer’s treatments have been disappointing, but Owens believes research targeting the disease will succeed in years ahead.

Meanwhile, MarketWatch's Jaffe writes that the "name probably doesn’t ring a bell, which tells you something about how investors focus on the wrong people and the wrong lessons. Owens — the longtime manager of Vanguard Health Care Fund — is arguably the greatest fund manager of his generation."

Jaffe points out that Owens isn't famous like Peter Lynch — known mostly for having a great performance run at Fidelity Magellan Fund, retiring on the top of his game, and writing some popular investing books. Nor is he infamous like Bill Miller of Legg Mason Value Trust, who had a decade-plus run of beating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, only to tarnish his reputation when the market beat him down severely. 

Edited by: Tommy Fernandez


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