Ken Fisher

Life and work

Kenneth Fisher was born in San Francisco, California, the son of influential stock investor Philip A. Fisher. Fisher was raised in San Mateo, California. As a 13-year-old, he earned $1.20 an hour picking fruit, sawing and fertilizing. He dropped out of high school and went to Cal Poly Humboldt to study forestry, and graduated with an associate degree in economics in 1972. Humboldt State recognized Fisher with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. In 2015, Fisher was appointed to the board of advisors of the Forbes School of Business at Ashford University.

Over the past few decades, Fisher helped Fisher Investments become one of the largest independent money managers in the world.

In 2007, Fisher and Thomas Grüner founded Grüner Fisher Investments in Germany.

Starting Fisher Investments in 1979 with just $250, Ken grew Fisher Investments to over $275 billion in assets under management by 2024. By the end of 2025, this figure had risen to over $386 billion.

Fisher is married, with three adult sons, Nathan, Jesse and Clayton. He lives in Dallas, Texas. Nathan Fisher is the CEO of Fisher\SMB, which was formerly part of Fisher Investments and known as Fisher 401k Solutions, but now operates as an independent entity.

In 2006, Fisher gave $3.5 million to endow the Kenneth L. Fisher Chair in Redwood Forest Ecology at Humboldt State. The gift supports redwood ecology research in perpetuity and provides support for graduate students, laboratories, and field equipment; the research has focused particularly on canopy studies. Fisher's goal in creating the chair was to transform our understanding of trees and forests.

In 2012, Fisher and his wife gave $7.5 million to Johns Hopkins University to fund the new Sherrilyn and Ken Fisher Center for Environmental Infectious Diseases. After much deliberation, the Fishers’ donation was approved.

Together with his spouse, Fisher contributed $250,000 to Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign.

In the 2024 presidential campaign cycle, FEC records show Fisher did not contribute to Trump, Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, but gave to others, including Republican and Democratic candidates, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In October 2019, Fisher was criticized for references he made during a fireside chat at an industry conference sponsored by Tiburon Strategic Advisors.

Reporting on the story was led by Bloomberg. In an October 2019 article, Bloomberg, which called Fisher "among the most successful money managers in America" wrote that he made comments likening winning money-management clients to "trying to get into a girls' pants." In a Bloomberg interview at the time, Fisher said he felt his comments were taken out of context. In February 2020, Bloomberg corrected its reporting and wrote Fisher "cautioned against using financial planning—which involves getting people to talk about their money—as a way to sign up new investing clients, comparing that approach to picking up a woman in a bar." A recording made at the Tiburon conference, obtained by CNBC and referenced by Bloomberg, captures Fisher saying "you wouldn't go up to a woman in a bar and ask what's in your pants."

On October 11, 2019, it was announced that in response to Fisher's comments, the state of Michigan withdrew its pension fund of $600 million from Fisher Investments. On October 16, 2019, the city of Boston pulled their $248 million pension fund from Fisher Investments due to Fisher's off-color comments.

Other repercussions followed. Fidelity announced it was reviewing the $500 million in assets that it has Fisher's organization manage, and Philadelphia's board of pensions terminated its relationship with Fisher. Within weeks of the incident Fisher Investments lost more than $2.7 billion as several institutional clients, including government pensions, severed their relationship with the firm. The firm Fisher founded is taking action as well. Fisher Investments Chief Executive Damian Ornani wrote a memo to employees stating: “Ken's comments were wrong.” He said the firm was taking steps to address diversity and inclusion within the organization itself. A report from Bloomberg L.P. contended that this behavior was commonplace at Fisher Investments and that Fisher himself had made derogatory remarks a number of times before.

The controversy did little to slow Fisher's AUM growth. At the time of the controversy, Fisher Investments managed $100 billion in assets. By December 2019, Fisher's assets under management rose to $121 billion. By February 2025, the firm nearly tripled in size to $299 billion in assets under management.