people|Emerging victorious

Mark Mobius

Emerging-markets fund manager, often called "Indiana Jones on Wall Street". He died on April 15th 2026, aged 89.

Background

His father was German and his mother Puerto Rican. He grew up on Long Island speaking both German and Spanish. He studied at Boston University, where he took the opportunity to study in Japan and developed a lasting affinity for the East. As a young man he wanted to be a method actor.

Career

Mobius ran an investment business for 20 years before joining Franklin Templeton in 1987 to head their emerging-markets fund—unusually old, already in his 50s, for the role. He managed $100m at the start; by the time he left in 2018 he was managing $40bn scattered over 70 countries. Average annualised returns on the fund were 13.4%. For every ten picks, he reckoned one would be a great success.

He set up his first offices in Hong Kong and Singapore. He travelled roughly 250 days a year, visiting factories, talking to managers and meeting workers before investing in any company. He was a regular presence on CNBC.

Investment philosophy

Almost all other fund managers in the 1980s and 1990s stuck to dependable companies in rich nations. Mobius took the opposite approach: a country unloved by investors might still contain enterprising people and companies worth backing, and the moment to enter a market was at the peak of chaos. Revolution was a chance to buy. When Russia hectically privatised in 1997, he visited 36 companies in three time zones.

He was a determined optimist. Pessimists, he believed, were only spectators. He absorbed from Sir John Templeton, the fund's founder, the view that countries needed a market economy open to foreign investment for their people to thrive.

Notable markets

China: one of the first Western fund managers in, though hobbled by capital controls that prevented money being taken out. He discounted caveats about Xi Jinping's iron grip, viewing it as stability, and considered a trade war with America distant.
Argentina: a "happy hunting-ground" given its wildly volatile stockmarket.
Brazil: his fund invested in Mesbla, a department-store chain that went bankrupt in 1997 after the owning family stripped its assets. Mobius learned of the collapse from the newspapers despite years of dealings and apparently sound books. After that he insisted on meeting owners.
Philippines: survived bullets during a coup.

Legacy

He gradually altered the psychology of investors and fund managers. Before him, they barely glanced at emerging markets. After him, markets including Argentina, Brazil, Poland, Thailand and Vietnam were in the mainstream asset class.

Personal life

He never married. He was known for his shaved head, white baseball cap, sempiternal tan and stylish clothes. He never took holidays; his constant travelling was the job itself.