Steve Akin

Steve Akin retired in December 2008 as president of Fidelity Personal Investments (FPI), the retail division of Fidelity Investments and as the president of Fidelity Brokerage Services Inc., He began in 1992 at Fidelity as President of Fidelity Retail Investment Services and president of Fidelity Retail Customer Development, which had responsibility for the retail distribution channels such as investor centers, telephone operations, and automated services.

In 1997, Mr. Akin was named president of Fidelity Investments Systems Company, the Chief Information Officer responsible for computer operations, global communications networks, and enterprise-wide applications support and development. His remit included chairing the Global Technology Board to provide enterprise-wide coordination of the global Fidelity technology community. Mr. Akin was named president of Fidelity Capital, the emerging business development arm of Fidelity Investments in 1999 overseeing 18 companies at different stages of development. He moved to London to serve as president and CEO of COLT (Seconded by Fidelity), the publicly traded, London-based, Pan-European telecommunications company, He also gained experience as executive vice president of Corporate Services overseeing the Legal, Corporate Affairs, Government and Public Affairs, Corporate Business Development and Regional Administration functions of the company.

Prior to joining Fidelity, Mr. Akin was president of Sprint Long Distance Consumer Services Group. Prior to that he senior vice president of National Customer Operations for Sprint. In 1987, Mr. Akin was chief operations officer at United Telephone Company Midwest Group in Overland Park, Kansas and prior he chief operations officer for United Telephone of Indiana.

Born in 1945 in Mahwah, New Jersey, Mr. Akin received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1969. He is a graduate of the Managing the Enterprise Program at Columbia University Business School. He also did course work at Harvard, Wharton, Babson, East Texas State, and Wright State.

Mr. Akin has served as the president of the Mansfield Symphony in Mansfield Ohio, and president of the Kansas City Lyric Opera. He completed his eight-year term as the Chairman of the Kents Hill School Board of Trustees in Readfield, Maine on June 30, 2015. He had been on the Kents Hill board since 2002 and is now an honorary Life Trustee. He also recently completed a ten-year term as the Chairman of the Boston Lyric Opera where he remains a trustee emeritus. The BLO is the largest and longest operating full staged opera in New England. Further he served on the Board of Trustees of the New England Conservatory.

He is on the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Fidelity Investments Trust Company and on Board of Trustees and on the investment committee of The Harold Alfond Foundation, the largest private foundation in Maine and serves on the Board of Dexter Enterprises. He is the Chairman of the Harold Alfond Scholarship Foundation, which provides funding through 529 plans for every newborn baby in Maine. They currently have given grants to 125,000 babies who have $325 million invested for their education. He served on the Board of Pioneer Institute a Massachusetts based, non-partisan think tank.

He lives in Naples with his wife of 48 years, Jane, a former professional opera singer. Their two daughters and their families live in Naples.

Mr. Akin was named Gulfshore Playhouse’s Board Chair in April 2019.