Southard Bond: Bond and Southard

southard bond: Southard dabbled in a real estate startup and Bond, puttering around on his farm, wondered if he could make a go out of growing grapes for wine, according to Market Watch. But as the founders of one of the earliest blockbuster exchange-traded fund companies, they knew an opportunity when they saw it. The two men are old financial hands, and when they sold their first company, in 2006, they walked away wealthy. Southard, who had been pitched an annuity for retirement, saw the benefit of the certainty such products offered, but wondered if that strategy could be deployed in a less-expensive structure an exchange-traded fund, for example. Bond hired a manager for the vineyard, and the two men set up shop. With a little research, Southard and Bond determined that their idea was novel, but doable, and had a strong chance of success. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.