| 20 August 2009

This story is giving us whiplash. First he's in, then he's out, now he's back in again. Fidelity's president, Rodger Lawson, gave media interviews yesterday in which he proclaimed, "I will stay with the company, in one way or another, as long as the company needs me, even if it’s 10 years."

We reported on the rumors of his departure in early July; rumors which came from some pretty credible sources. While it's just speculation on our part, we think this back-and-forth is indication that even insiders aren't sure what to do with Lawson, who has been in charge a little over two years now. Lawson promised to focus on the performance of the company's mutual funds, which subsequently underperformed 54 percent of their peers in 2008.

But that was 2008 and now the firm seems to have turned a corner and survived one of the worst financial crisis we've seen. "We’ve come through this crisis very well," Lawson said. Fidelity's stock funds in particular have performed better than most of their peers lately, according to Lawson.

Apparently the succession planning is still proceeding, but the pace may have slowed and Lawson, it appears, just bought himself a little time. It hasn't come easy. "This has been 12-15 hours a day for two years,’" Lawson said in an interview with the Boston Globe. "This has been really hard.’"