Vadim Zlotnikov is head of Fidelity Institutional, the division of Fidelity Investments that serves registered investment advisers, banks, broker-dealers and other institutions. He began as an engineer and spent a quarter of a century reading markets at AllianceBernstein before moving to Fidelity.
MIT, Bell Labs and Stanford
He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from MIT in 1984 and spent two years as a research engineer at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He took an MBA at Stanford in 1988, then spent six years as a management consultant at Booz Allen working for technology companies, and was a director of electronic ventures at Amoco Technology Company.
From Chip Analyst to Market Strategist
He joined Sanford C. Bernstein, later part of AllianceBernstein, as an analyst covering PC and semiconductor companies, and in 1996 launched its technology strategy research. Institutional Investor ranked him on its All-America Research Team in semiconductors, portfolio strategy and quantitative research. He became chief investment strategist and, from 2010 to 2018, chief market strategist, while also co-heading multi-asset solutions and serving as CIO of systematic and index strategies.
Running Fidelity Institutional
He joined Fidelity in May 2018 to lead global asset allocation and became president of Fidelity Institutional Asset Management Solutions. In December 2022 he succeeded Mike Durbin as head of Fidelity Institutional, which oversees investment solutions, trading, prime brokerage, clearing and custody. In January 2026 Stephen Richard took over the clearing and custody arm, reporting to him; it administers $5.1 trillion for more than 3,300 clients.
He started out as a research engineer at Bell Labs. He now oversees the systems that hold trillions of dollars for the advisers who serve ordinary savers.
