Jonathan Bell Lovelace (1895–1979) was the founder of

Capital Group Companies Capital Group is an American financial services company. It ranks among the world's oldest and largest investment management organizations, with over $2.6 trillion in assets under management. Founded in Los Angeles, California in 1931, it is pri ...

Early life

Jonathan Bell Lovelace was born in 1895. He grew up in

Brewton, Alabama Brewton is a city in and the county seat of Escambia County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 5,276. Brewton is located in south central Alabama, just north of the Florida Panhandle. Brewton was ranked as one o ...

and attended Auburn University.

Career

Lovelace spent most of the 1920s at a

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

banking/brokerage firm, developing his investment research techniques and earning impressive results. In 1924, he became a partner in E.E. MacCrone. By 1929, before the stock market crash, he could see no logical relationship between stock market prices and their underlying values, so he sold his interest in the firm, took his investments out of the market and moved to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

. Lovelace founded Capital Research and Management Company in 1931 which was at first a small firm named Lovelace, Dennis and Renfrew.

Personal life

His son, Jon B. Lovelace Jr., a

Hotchkiss School The Hotchkiss School is a coeducational preparatory school in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States. Hotchkiss is a member of the Eight Schools Association and Ten Schools Admissions Organization. It is also a former member of the G30 Schools gr ...

1944 graduate, served as an executive at

. In 2007, his son and family were ranked #840 on the Forbes Billionaires List worth $1.1 billion. As of 2019, grandson Rob Lovelace serves as an investment manager for a Capital Group fund.

Death

He died in 1979.

References

1895 births 1979 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople American financial company founders American financiers American investors Auburn University alumni Businesspeople from Alabama Hotchkiss School alumni People from Brewton, Alabama Auburn Tigers football coaches {{US-business-bio-1890s-stub