Michael Spangler

Education

• MBA, Finance, Lehigh University, 1993.
• BS, Business Administration, Finance, Elizabethtown College, 1988 

Bio

Recognized for innovative solutions and transformational growth leadership across the financial services and investment management sector, Mike Spangler is an accomplished executive leader with experience that includes Fortune 100 investment management, C-suite leadership, operational excellence, and strategic board governance.

Most recently, Mr. Spangler delivered award-winning leadership to Nationwide Investment Management Group as the President and Chief Executive Officer for Nationwide Funds, Nationwide Fund Advisors, and Nationwide Securities, and Senior Vice President for Nationwide Financial Services. Since first being elected to the role in 2008, Mike has transformed the organization’s culture and created a solid and stable foundation for the group’s $100B+ in assets under management and 2M investors, more than tripling AUM and growing sales to $7B+ during his tenure.

Mike created a customer-centric culture at Nationwide by delivering innovative products and solutions to improve investor outcomes and build organizational success. His successful leadership includes the following:

• Fostered D&I across the enterprise and industry through creation of a Responsible Investing Policy and a sustainable investing implementation framework, and through sponsorship of a first-of-its-kind Black Executive Leadership Forum.
• Tailored high-performing investment solutions to help investors, financial professionals, and institutional investors achieve their goals, resulting in honors from Morningstar, IMEA, IBD, wealthmanagement.com, and Fund Intelligence.
• Achieved extraordinary profitable growth well above the industry average, raising complex assets from $24B to $104B and sales from $2B to $7.2B; was accountable for $300M in top-line revenues.
• Added forward-thinking investments in the digital space through a market-specific research initiative allowing Nationwide to enter the Collective Investment Trust, ETF, institutional separate account, and advisory marketplaces.
• Led industry in team development and retention, with industry-leading engagement above the 75th percentile (Gallup), and recognition as a 2022 Fortune Best Workplaces for Women and 2022 Great Places Best Workplaces.

Prior to Nationwide, Mike was a Managing Director for Morgan Stanley Investment Management where he led Americas Retail & Intermediary Product Management. There he excelled at bringing teams and business lines together by attracting and developing exceptional talent and transforming the organizational direction of the group.

Mike’s foundational experiences included executive leadership roles with Touchstone Investments and Evergreen Investments where he developed his customer-centric approach to leadership, established his breadth and depth of business development and restructuring expertise, and collaborated to create bespoke, innovative, and high-performing investment solutions.

Mike completed The Wharton School’s Executive Leadership Development Program, earned his MBA in Finance from Lehigh University, his BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Elizabethtown College, and he holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 53, and 63 Licenses.

Mike delivers strategic business and financial counsel to various boards including Elizabethtown College where he is heavily involved in board governance as the Chair of the Board of Trustees. Additionally, he is a member of the boards for the largest faith-based pension plan in the United States—Wespath Benefits and Investments and Wespath Institutional Investments —and he served on the Board of Directors for the Community Housing Network during his tenure at Nationwide. 

Research Interests

• The future of the Investment Management industry 

Presentations and Awards

• Investor’s Business Daily: 2022 Award for 5 Funds
• Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards: 2022 Global Multi-Core and Large-Cap Core Funds Award
• WealthManagement.com: 2022 Alternatives Asset Manager of the Year
• Fund Intelligence: 2021 Active ETF of the Year
• Investment Management Education Alliance: 2021 Digital Marketing Campaign of the Year, 2021 Advisor Thought Leadership, 2020 Retirement Integrated Campaign, 2019 Advisor Digital Education, Advisor Integrated Campaign, & Advisor Analytics Driven Campaign, 2018 Advisor Experiential Education & Distinguished Education Campaign, 9 Awards in 2016 & 2017