American Century Appoints Industry Veteran John Pak General Counsel

Pak joins from BNY Mellon Investment and Wealth Management

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Jun 17, 2021, 10:00 ET

KANSAS CITY, Mo., June 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- American Century Investments, a $234 billion* global investment manager, has named John Pak as its general counsel, filling the role currently held by Charles Etherington, who will retire at the end of 2021. Pak, who has served in a number of senior-level legal positions at The Bank of New York Mellon, Dreyfus Funds, Deutsche Bank and other firms, assumes his new role August 2 and will work closely with Etherington through the end of the year to ensure an orderly transition of responsibilities.

As general counsel, Pak will oversee all legal and compliance matters for the firm, as well the company's internal audit function. He will also join the company's management committee, the senior leadership team responsible for establishing and executing strategic priorities.

"I'm delighted to welcome John to American Century, a firm known for our client-centric culture, a unique ownership structure that directs over 40 percent of our profits to medical research, and aligned teamwork," said President and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Thomas. "John brings significant expertise from the securities and financial industry, including growing and leading high impact teams, providing leadership to client and product initiatives, as well as supporting firm-wide efforts for diversity, equity and inclusion and talent development. His strong experience will help him expand upon the notable achievements of Chuck Etherington and the American Century legal and compliance team. I also would like to thank Chuck for his 27 years of dedicated service and leadership as he built an exemplary legal, compliance and audit team."

Pak joins American Century after serving for seven years as chief legal officer of BNY Mellon Investment and Wealth Management, where he oversaw all legal, regulatory and litigation matters involving the company's global investment management and wealth management businesses, which included eight independent investment firms with over $2 trillion in assets under management. Prior to taking on that role, he served as chief legal officer of The Dreyfus Funds and The Dreyfus Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon. He was a member of BNY Mellon Investment Management's senior leadership team and senior risk committee, a director on the board of Investment Management's parent company, and the head of the BNY Mellon legal department's diversity and inclusion program.

Previously, Pak was a managing director at Deutsche Bank, where he served as deputy global head of Deutsche Asset Management legal and regional head of Deutsche Asset Management Americas legal, supporting Deutsche Bank's global institutional, retail, insurance and alternatives asset management businesses. Before that, he was an executive director at Morgan Stanley and head of legal for Morgan Stanley Investment Management's U.S. institutional and U.S. intermediary businesses. He began his asset management legal career at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, a New York-based global law firm.

Pak earned his juris doctorate degree from Cornell Law School and a bachelor's degree in English and philosophy from Dartmouth College.

About American Century Investments
American Century Investments is a leading global asset manager focused on delivering investment results and building long-term client relationships while supporting breakthrough medical research. Founded in 1958, American Century Investments' 1,400 employees serve financial professionals, institutions, corporations and individual investors from offices in New York; London; Frankfurt; Hong Kong; Sydney; Mountain View, Calif.; and Kansas City, Mo. Jonathan S. Thomas is president and chief executive officer, and Victor Zhang serves as chief investment officer. Delivering investment results to clients enables American Century Investments to distribute over 40 percent of its dividends to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, a 500-person, non-profit basic biomedical research organization. The Institute owns more than 40 percent of American Century Investments and has received dividend payments of $1.7 billion since 2000. For more information about American Century Investments, visit www.americancentury.com.