Blake Moore ’80 Named CEO of Touchstone Investments

WOOSTER, Ohio – Blake Moore ’80 is returning to the city where he began his professional football career, as The College of Wooster alumnus was named CEO of Touchstone Investments, a member company of Western & Southern Financial Group, it was announced earlier this week by the largest mutual fund operator in Cincinnati. Moore will take on the additional role of president of Touchstone on Jan. 1, 2021.
Moore has held a number of senior management level positions at financial services organizations, most recently as president of North American Asset Management at Foresters Financial, where he had oversight of all asset management and related businesses. He also was head of the Americas region at UBS Asset Management, a firm with more than $600 billion in assets under management, executive vice president and head of distribution at Mackenzie Investments, and CEO of Allianz Global Investors Fund Management.
“Bringing nearly three decades of experience in the financial services industry, Blake is uniquely positioned to lead Touchstone,” John F. Barrett, Western & Southern chairman, president, and CEO, said in making the announcement. “His tremendous leadership qualities will help Touchstone continue its success providing investors with Distinctively Active® mutual funds.”
Long before his highly successful business career, Moore majored in history at Wooster where he was a standout in the classroom as a Phi Beta Kappa honoree and on the football field. The 6-5, 250-pound center earned the Gregory Award as the top lineman in the Ohio Athletic Conference twice, was a two-time Associated Press Little All-American, and received Academic All-American® recognition three times.
Moore drew enough attention to sign a free agent contract with the Cincinnati Bengals. He not only made the team, but went on to a six-year NFL career, which included playing in Super Bowl XVI with the Bengals and scoring a pair of touchdowns as a member of the Green Bay Packers. He later wrote an autobiography, titled “Through a Pigskin Prism,” about his unlikely journey to professional football, life in the NFL, and the many lessons he learned through the sport.
After a two-year stint with Green Bay, Moore decided to retire on his own terms, continuing his education. He went to Harvard Law School, earning a juris doctor in 1989. A few years later, he pivoted to finance, beginning his career with Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management, which was sold to Allianz in 2001.
Moore has been an active member of the College’s Board of Trustees since 2008. He served as the campaign chair of “Wooster’s Promise: A Campaign for Our Future,” which at $190 million was the largest fundraising campaign in school history.
Touchstone currently has assets of $17.4 billion, according to its press release, and is a firm that employs a fully-integrated process for identifying and partnering with asset managers who sub-advise their mutual funds, resulting in funds managed with high conviction via concentrated portfolios and significant differentiation from their respective benchmarks.

Posted in News on June 11, 2020.