"A Little Better Than He Found It"
John Bachmann '60

"Bullish on Canada - and Wabash"
Gary Reamey '77

After nine years as a retail broker for Jones in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and four years in the St. Louis headquarters managing over 900 midwestern offices, Anderson was tapped to reproduce in the United Kingdom the firm's successful international venture into Canada.

Magazine
Winter 1998

Changing Course, Full Speed Ahead
by Rob Herzog

Allan "Andy" Anderson '65 feels strongly that Wabash prepared him to adapt to the unpredictable course of his life. Even before Wabash, that course was altered by a memorable recruiting visit from admissions director Carroll Black '28 to his small high school in Chaplin, Illinois. Soon after, Bruce Polizotto '63 was carrying Anderson's bags into the Phi Delt house at Wabash for the beginning of the 1961-62 year.

Other stops in Anderson's journey have included the U.S. Navy, General Motors, a return to Wabash as director of development (1974-1978), and Crawford Industries in Crawfordsville. The latest stop in his career may be his most ambitious, however. In July of 1997 he and his wife, Jane, moved to London so he could launch the first European outpost of Edward Jones & Co.

After nine years as a retail broker for Jones in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and four years in the St. Louis headquarters managing over 900 midwestern offices, Anderson was tapped to reproduce in the United Kingdom the firm's successful international venture1 into Canada.

Besides the lack of a language barrier in the U.K., case studies for Jones prepared by graduate students at the London School of Business confirmed the market opportunity for opening Edward Jones offices.

"The U.K. finds itself in a similar situation to the United States in the early eighties," Anderson says. "Consumers are heavily invested in the British version of savings and loan banks, called 'Building Trusts.'" Although he doesn't suggest an S&L crisis is on the horizon in England, it is clear to him that the British "baby boomers" need greater investment diversity as they prepare for retirement. Compounding this need is a social welfare system that may not support increasing numbers of retirees.

These issues ring familiar to Americans, which has resulted in the dramatic success of Jones' investment services in the United States. Anderson anticipates that a similar climate of increased personal investment will develop in the U.K..

Without hesitation, Anderson predicts the U.K. will be a jumping off point for Jones offices on the rest of the European continent. Thanks to the efforts of European integration, once Jones is approved to operate in one European Union country, it can easily open in another. The only hurdle may be language barriers. But if the past holds any lessons for the future, Anderson will be prepared for whatever comes next.