John Olcay

Önder John Olcay (1940 - 17 October 2014) was a Turkish-American financier who was instrumental in the development of asset management services to central banks. As a partner of W. Greenwell & Co., he was also one of the first members of the London Stock Exchange not born in the UK or the British Commonwealth.[1] Economist Adam Posen described him as "a trusted advisor to Central Bankers in particular around the world from Singapore to Switzerland and in between".[2]

Biography

Önder Olcay was born in İzmir in 1940, the son of Nahide (a lawyer and judge) and Süreyya Olcay.[3] He studied at Robert College in Istanbul, then at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he obtained a Master of Arts and Master of Business Administration. Going by John Olcay while living in the United States, he then became a Vice President at the Bank of New York, helping to establish their first international office in London.[2] In the late 1960s, he started advising global Netherlands-based insurer Aegon N.V.,[1] of which he was later a supervisory board member from 1993 to 2008.[4]

In 1974, Olcay initiated a joint offering with the recently established Fischer Francis Trees & Watts (FFTW) to advise central banks and other investors on their management of US dollar-denominated assets. In 1983, Olcay joined FFTW on a full-time basis, and subsequently became a vice chairman and managing director of the firm.[1]

John Olcay had a son, John R. Olcay, from a first marriage. He married Phoebe Miller on 19 October 1985.[3] They had two daughters, Margot and Charlotte. He died in 2014 in New York of prostate cancer.[1]

Legacy

The Peterson Institute for International Economics has run a series of annual lectures in memory of John Olcay starting in 2015, the year after his death. The lectures were given by George Akerlof (2015), Sheila Bair (2016), Alan Blinder (2017), Eric S. Rosengren (2018), Stephen G. Cecchetti (2019), Benjamin M. Friedman (2021), and Thomas Jordan (2022).[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Olcay, Onder John". The New York Times. 23 October 2014.
  2. ^ a b Unedited Event Transcript: O. John Olcay Lecture On Ethics And Economics - The Role of Personal Accountability and Economic Incentives in Ethical Behavior (PDF), Washington DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics, 3 May 2016
  3. ^ a b "Onder John Olcay And Phebe Miller Exchange Vows". The New York Times. 20 October 1985.
  4. ^ Nominations Supervisory Board AEGON N.V. (PDF), The Hague: AEGON, 6 March 2008
  5. ^ "O. John Olcay Lectures on Ethics and Economics". Peterson Institute for International Economics. Retrieved 13 July 2025.
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