Mark Mobius, ’Indiana Jones of emerging markets,’ dies at 89

By Marc Jones and Rodrigo Campos

April 15 (Reuters) - Mark Mobius, widely credited as a pioneer in emerging markets investing, died on Wednesday at the age of 89, according to a statement on his LinkedIn page.

Known as the "Indiana Jones of emerging markets" for his willingness to unlock new, sometimes hazardous jurisdictions, Mobius relished the challenge. "Volatility," he wrote in "Passport to Profits," one of his many books, "is not an enemy to fear but a sign that opportunity is close at hand."

The post did not mention a cause of death.

Having invested in EMs for decades, Mobius was touting new opportunities as recently as January. On Venezuela, he wrote, "with (President Nicolas) Maduro’s exit, we may see a new political and economic order and the country could be reopening to investors."

His convictions shaped a generation of fund managers and helped draw billions of dollars into markets once dismissed as peripheral.

His books — part travelogue, part tutorial — offered an unusually human view of global finance. In 2012’s "The Little Book of Emerging Markets," he wrote that behind every balance sheet and stock ticker lies a community struggling to grow: "If you want to understand a market, start with its people."

The line distilled his belief that on-the-ground observation mattered more than abstract theory. He recalled that it was during factory visits in Brazil, meetings with privatization officials in Poland, and conversations with shopkeepers in the Philippines that opportunities revealed themselves to him.

As executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, where he worked for over 30 years, Mobius traveled relentlessly, often visiting dozens of countries in a single year in search of undervalued businesses and underappreciated economies. He claimed to have visited at least 112 countries.

He became, in effect, the public face of emerging-markets investing just as the asset class was taking shape. His calm manner and encyclopedic knowledge reassured Western investors who were uneasy about political risk, currency volatility, and opaque governance. 

Born to Puerto Rican and German parents in Hempstead, New York, Joseph Bernhard Mark Mobius received a Ph.D in economics from MIT in 1964 with a thesis about communication satellites.

He first went to school for fine arts, and in his life worked at a talent agency, as a teacher, and as a marketer of Snoopy products in Asia. He was also a political consultant.

John Ninia and Eric Nguyen, both partners at Mobius Investments, will assume leadership responsibilities, the firm said in a statement.