Episode 358: Michael Davis of T Rowe Price: Retiring a Legend - Lessons in Trust and Client Loyalty
The Fiftyfaces PodcastShow Notes
Michael Davis, is Head of Global Retirement Strategy at T. Rowe Price and former Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor (2009–2012), and will be retiring in May of 2026. He has had a long career in finance interspersed with spells of public service, including in particular a role as Assistant Secretary in the US Department of Labor, from 2009 to 2012. He has a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard and remains committed to the study of global leadership as well as the promotion of opportunity.
Our conversation starts with Michael's non-traditional path into finance, and his upbringing in the south. We learn what drew him to finance, and the strong underpinning of service that is a thread throughout.
Michael explains how translating between different worlds shaped his leadership philosophy of dignity, integrity, and learning from ethical leaders and presidential biographies, citing Truman’s view that certainty never fully arrives. He outlines T. Rowe Price’s differentiated retirement platform- $1.8T managed with about two-thirds retirement-related, active target-date leadership, record-keeping for 2.5M participants, and 1.1M individual investors- and the value of combining stakeholder signals.
His core beliefs include integrity, transparency, simple communication, diversification, and a balanced view of active and passive.
Looking ahead, he highlights the unresolved challenge of decumulation and delivering trusted advice at scale, arguing defaults beat financial literacy alone, and emphasizing that asset managers ultimately “sell trust.”
This podcast is kindly sponsored by Benefit Street Partners and PIMCO. Founded in 2008, Benefit Street Partners – BSP – is Franklin Templeton’s specialised private credit manager with $92 billion in assets under management.
The firm provides a wide range of private credit strategies across the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, including direct lending, special situations, commercial real estate debt, infrastructure debt, asset backed finance, structured credit and liquid credit.
PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company LLC) is a premier global investment management firm founded in 1971, specializing in active fixed-income with over $2 trillion in assets under management. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, it offers diversified investment solutions across public and private markets, serving institutional and individual investors worldwid
More from The Fiftyfaces Podcast
Vadim Grigoryan describes himself as a craft marketer that has grown from a rocket scientist. He focuses on growing brands as “cultural agents” and in building meaning through art, culture and tech in an entertaining way. He focuses in marketing on High Quality, High Aesthetics and High Status. We were both at INSEAD together, and we recently reconnected when he invited me to a book launch for his book, Art Thinking. In the book stresses the value of non-aesthetic inspiration from artists like Marcel Duchamp and the necessity of friction and discomfort for innovation. Gregorian believes that cultural capital is a faster social elevator than financial capital.
Christian Abuide is a macro portfolio manager and asset allocation consultant. At the time of recording he was based in Geneva but he has recently moved to Abu Dhabi where he is continuing to advise on multi-asset allocation and wealth tech solutions.
Anastasia Amoroso is a Managing Director and Chief Investment Strategist at Partners Group. In this role, she provides macroeconomic, private markets, and portfolio management insights to investors. She joined Partners Group from iCapital, where she served as Chief Investment Strategist for the prior four years.
Joey Mason is a Venture Partner in Life Sciences at Claret Capital Partners where he has been since September 2024. He has over 30 years’ experience in the sector, and has significant experience in most segments of the Life Sciences industry – medtech, pharma/ biotech, diagnostics, health IT and techbio. He has served on the boards of 20 private and public companies in Ireland, Europe and the USA.
In this bonus podcast we bring you a short conversation with long-term guest and supporter of Fiftyfaces - Jenny Segal, who has just published her sixth book On Motivation - The Blueprint for Success, which is being launched today - October 6, 2026. I