Early in his career, Rusty Vanneman worked as an analyst, manager and product manager at Thomson Financial in a group called Technical Data, which was eventually re-branded Thomson Global Markets. It provided real-time market analysis on primarily fixed income and currency markets for traders around the world, primarily over machines such as Telerate and Knight-Ridder (tools that Bloomberg eventually vanquished).
From there, Vanneman went on to Fidelity Investments, where he was a senior research analyst. In the 1990s, Fidelity started a group called Strategic Advisors to manage a variety of products, including their repurposed mutual fund wrap, Portfolio Advisory Service, to start including non-Fidelity funds into the portfolios.
“This required a high-quality, institutional due-diligence effort, and I was fortunate to be a founding analyst who was heavily involved in establishing the group’s investment methodology,” Vanneman said.