At ten years old, William D. Rutherford first heard his father talking about the stock market, he was instantly intrigued. He thought that making your money work for you was a terrific idea.
PORTLAND, OR, July 12, 2020 /Neptune100/ — Through his modest silver-dollar-a-week earnings he was able to scrape together $200 and make his first investment. The rest is history.
With fifty years of investment experience behind him, Mr. Rutherford remains a self-proclaimed lifelong learner, infusing his client services with the many lessons gathered from leading businesses and governments to international success. He launched Rutherford Investment Management in 1994 with the mission of providing institutional quality investment management to the long-term investor. The firm prides itself in not only growing clients’ wealth over time, but growing their investment prowess too, attributing its performance largely to effective client education.
As much a teacher as a learner, Mr. Rutherford shared his expertise gained through a variety of corporate leadership roles: CEO of Fiberboard Asbestos Compensation Trust and Director of Special Projects for Metallgesellschaft Corporation. In the early 90s he served as President of Société Générale Touche Remnant, was on their board of directors, and in the years prior held a number of positions at ABD International Management Corporation, including President, CEO, and member of the board.
Mr. Rutherford served in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1977 to 1984. He subsequently led Oregon into international equity investing as its State Treasurer, becoming the first public fund to do so and serving as a model for other states to follow. In 1986 he also became Chairman of the Oregon Investment Council, leaving the Oregon PERS significantly overfunded and positioned to remain so.
Mr. Rutherford’s life trajectory was heavily shaped by his invaluable experience as a boy working in the family business and eventually handling its finances. His professional pursuits began with a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Oregon followed by graduation from Harvard University Law School. After completing 10 years of active and reserve duty in the U.S. Army, he began practicing law. Eventually he returned to his childhood home of McMinnville, Oregon, to launch his own legal practice.
Beyond his professional endeavors, Mr. Rutherford was active in the community. He served on the Portland Opera Association board of directors, was President of the McMinnville Chamber of Commerce and head of its award winning downtown redevelopment and as a trustee for the Oregon Nature Conservancy. He currently serves on the board of the Palm Springs Air Museum and on the investment committee of the Oregon Community Foundation. In 2006, he penned “Who Shot Goldilocks?” an engaging look at why the 90s Goldilocks stock market era collapsed.
Although Mr. Rutherford has accrued several accolades throughout his career, such as the Contribution to Individual Freedom Award from the American Civil Liberties Union (1981) and inclusions in multiple editions of Who’s Who, he is most proud of his long-term philanthropic commitments. These include a fund he set up to aid in protecting Cascade Head, a prominent geographical location on the Oregon Coast that sees 30,000 annual visitors. To build a bridge of understanding among cultures and facilitate mutual problem solving, he created and funds an initiative at the University of Oregon that has resulted in the Middle Eastern Studies minor. Beyond that, Mr. Rutherford has made significant donations to his alma maters, end of life palliative care research, scholarships, and school music programs.
As a teenager, before any of this came to pass, he took a career test that determined he should become a social worker. Given Mr. Rutherford’s life’s work as a trusted advisor educating and empowering individuals, organizations and communities, perhaps that test was accurate after all in predicting a legacy of service.
Mr. Rutherford writes a monthly article for the Daily Journal of Commerce Oregon and has been quoted and published in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The London Guardian, Smart Money Magazine, Business Week, Money Management Forum, Christian Science Monitor, Chief Executive Magazine, and Reuters. He has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg Television, and served as speaker at numerous investor conferences. Mr. Rutherford is the author of Who Shot Goldilocks?: How Alan Greenspan Did in Our Jobs, Savings, and Retirement Plans.”
