Bogle Unexpectedly Departs Numeric Investors

John C. Bogle Jr. has suddenly left N/I Numeric Investors, the quantitative mutual fund house in Cambridge, Mass., which he helped build by putting his star-studded name behind the firm to help grow its assets.

Lynn Wickwire, marketing director of mutual funds for N/I Numeric, wouldn't say why Bogle, the oft-quoted son of the Vanguard Group's senior chairman, Jack Bogle, left the firm. He would only say it was a recent development.

"It just worked out that John left Numeric very recently," Wickwire says. "As recently as this week. I'm not going to go beyond the release."

In the news release, issued Wednesday, Numeric said Bogle left "to pursue other opportunities." Wickwire declined to make Bogle available for comment. "John's not taking any calls," he said. Attempts to reach Bogle at his home were unsuccessful.

Bogle came to Numeric in 1990 as a partner and managing director, six months after Langdon B. Wheeler, Numeric's president, started the firm, Wickwire said. In 1996, Bogle led the push to launch the firm's mutual funds.

Wheeler did not return a call seeking comment.

Bogle has been the firm's public face, frequently turning up in news stories about the funds or the market in general. Numeric, with about $5.5 billion in assets under management but only $375 million in its mutual funds, used Bogle's name to the hilt to get the word out on its computer-driven funds.

"I was doing the marketing and trying to position us, and I rode that horse, the Bogle name, intentionally, until it died," Wickwire says, noting that the firm, which strives to keep costs low, doesn't advertise. "But we've always had this team approach. We obviously aren't going to have the recognition status that we've had, but the management hasn't changed and won't change. It will continue as before."

As recently as December, Bogle touted the launching of the company's Small Cap Value fund, even while downplaying the sputtering performance of that sector. With Bogle behind it, the fund garnered writeups from Dow Jones News Service, The Boston Globe and TheStreet.com.

TSC contributing editor Brenda Buttner is a fan of Bogle's low-cost style, which he adopted from his cost-cutting father. Before concentrating on the Numeric funds in 1996, Bogle managed similar funds for the Quantatative Group of Funds, also in the Boston area.

But while Numeric runs its five funds with computer-driven models designed to take advantage of inefficiencies in the market, 1998 was a mixed year for the firm. The $132.3 million (NIMCX Quote)Micro Cap fund and the small-cap $98.1 million (NISGX Quote)Growth fund posted returns of 16.3% and 2.2%, respectively, beating their small-cap benchmarks. But the group's large- and mid-cap funds significantly underperformed their benchmarks.