James Weddle - Managing Partner for Edward Jones.- 2006

Weddle has been a general partner of Edward Jones since 1984 and a member of the partnership's management committee. He began working in the research department at Edward Jones while still at DePauw University. After graduating and then getting his MBA from Washington University in 1977, he moved to Connersville, Ind., and established Edward Jones' 200th branch. He became a partner in sales training in 1984, and in 1985, he took over one of the firm's largest revenue-generating units -- mutual fund sales and marketing. He became a member of the management committee in 1986 and moved to branch administration in 1989, where he was responsible for developing the entire East Coast.

For the past five years, Weddle has been in charge of administration of the company's more than 9,000 branch sales offices, including the identification and development of management talent within the company. At Edward Jones, the managing partner is primarily responsible for running the partnership's business and determining its policies. The managing partner also has the power to appoint and dismiss general partners and to determine the proportion of their respective interests in the partnership.

Edward Jones, with about 9,600 investment representatives, is among the largest financial services firms in the country and one of St. Louis' largest private companies. The firm has 265 general partners, 4,812 limited partners and 153 subordinated limited partners(in 2005).

Within three months of taking over as managing partner at Edward Jones, Jim Weddle announced that the firm is launching a $200 million overhaul of its communications system.
Edward Jones plans to spend at least that much in the next year switching from satellite communications to high-speed, land-based connections.

The technology initiative to connect the firm's more than 9,700 brokers in some 9,300 offices started about 18 months ago but gathered momentum since Weddle, 52, took over as managing partner at the beginning of the year.

Edward Jones is making the move after posting record revenue and earnings for 2005 -- $3.2 billion in revenue and $330 million in earnings, before distributions to partners, up from 2004 revenue of $2.8 billion that produced a $217 million profit.

In a company known for its simple approach to investors, Weddle said he is trying to keep management simple and straightforward in an operation that now has more than 32,000 employees, including more than 4,000 in the St. Louis area at its headquarters in Des Peres and at a campus in Maryland Heights. The April 2006 issue of trade magazine Registered Rep said Weddle still eats with employees in the company cafeteria, parks wherever he finds a vacancy on the Edward Jones lot in Des Peres and has no plans to change the firm's long-standing policy of not selling options and commodities. "Those are more like wagers than investments," Weddle told Registered Rep.

Weddle said he also is committed to beefing up internal communications and will do six live video broadcasts for employees this year. He's fielding more questions from a suggestion box on the company's internal e-mail network.

The new communication system is scheduled to be in place by July 2007 and will bring high-speed Internet connections to every office, plus new computers, a new phone system and new financial software.


Weddle said the new technology will be the backbone of the Edward Jones system to deliver financial information.

Edward Jones was on the cutting edge when it installed the satellite system in 1989, but at that time most of the firm's offices were in rural parts of the country and had no access to other high-speed data communications, said Rich Malone, who oversees information technology and is one of 15 partners on the firm's management committee.

Greg Sullivan, chief executive of Global Velocity, which works with businesses to manage their communications systems, said improved technology in land-based systems gives them advantages over satellites, such as fewer dropped signals and an ability to transmit data faster.
So far, Edward Jones is testing its new Internet technology in 100 branches, and 4,000 offices will have switched from satellite dishes by the end of 2006. The firm expects to sign long-term agreements in the coming weeks with major outside suppliers for telephones, video service and data service. Weddle said it is too early to identify those suppliers. Edward Jones already selected Microsoft products for its e-mail system, and the firm has existing relationships with Hewlett-Packard Co. for computer workstations and Xerox Corp. for desktop printers, and Weddle said those relationships will stay in place.

Sources
http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2005/11/07/daily14.html

http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2006/04/10/story1.html