Daughter’s list of missed events prompts CEO to quit $100m job

Mohamed El-Erian was the chief executive of one the biggest investment funds in the world, earning about a $100 million a year, when he suddenly decided to quit in January this year.

His departure from the $2 trillion Pimco fund rocked the investment world, where he was seen as the natural successor to chief Bill Gross.

His reason for leaving was a cliche of departing executives: the wish to spend more time with family.

However, he has now revealed his decision was prompted by a note from his 10-year-old daughter, detailing 22 milestone events in her life he had missed because of his busy work schedule.

“About a year ago, I asked my daughter several times to do something - brush her teeth I think it was - with no success. I reminded her that it was not so long ago that she would have immediately responded,” he said in a recent interview with Worth magazine.

“She asked me to wait a minute, went to her room and came back with a piece of paper. It was a list that she had compiled of her important events and activities that I had missed due to work commitments. Talk about a wake-up call.”

The list of missed events she presented to him included her first day at school, her first football match and a Halloween parade.

El-Erian said that he decided it was more important to be a good dad than a good investor.

While no longer at Pimco, El-Erian, a Cambridge-educated economist, has retained a post with Allianz, serving in the newly minted role of chief economic adviser, where he says he spends "50 per cent of my time and I love it."

On the controversy within Pimco his departure cause, he told Reuters recently: “If I had known that there would be this media circus, I would’ve done a lot of things differently.”

To begin with, he might have considered working part time.

“Was there a way of not going 100 miles an hour and maybe going 50 miles an hour? To be perfectly honest, I didn’t explore that option. I never explored it,” he said, describing his management style as trying to work as hard or harder than anyone else. A part-time position would have felt “inconsistent” with his style, he said.

Additional reporting by Reuters