David K. Donovan

David K. Donovan Fidelity David K. Donovan currently serves as the Global Portfolio Lead at Sapient Global Markets. He provides innovative solutions and leads transformational programs, from strategy to execution, in order to cut Sapient’s costs, drive revenue, and help grow the powerhouse IT company. Donovan brings years of managerial expertise in the tech industry and has worked closely with asset managers and investment banks to solve the biggest challenges facing C-suite executives today.

Before he transitioned into his current role at Sapient, Donovan enjoyed a long tenure as a Senior Trader at Fidelity Investments, where he earned a reputation for his incredible track record and knack for successfully trading equities, derivatives, baskets and futures programs. Thanks to his intellectual acumen and dogged determination, Donovan earned standout gains that made him the the highest ranked trader every single year from 1999 to 2005. 

Early Years

As a three-sport athlete in high school and 4-year varsity football star at Boston College, Donovan knew early on the excitement of a competitive environment. The stock market and finance industry promised this high-level competitiveness, and Donovan’s early interest in finance drew him to the industry in college. After earning an acceptance at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, Donovan buckled down on his studies and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Finance.

It was during this time that Donovan networked with some connections on the Boston Stock Exchange and secured a place for himself on the Exchange after graduation. He learned the business from the ground up and leveraged that experience into a job working as a Money Manager at John Hancock Financial Services. There, Donovan traded bonds, money markets and equities; interacted with fund managers; and played a key role in developing successful investment strategies. Impressed with Donovan’s early success and strong reputation, Fidelity Investments reached out and recruited him to trade for one of their most successful but volatile fund managers, William Danoff. 

Fidelity Investments

Donovan traded for Danoff for five years, and proved himself an incredibly valuable asset in the process. When Fidelity eventually decided to move from a fund manager-based trading model to a new sector trading model, they chose Donovan as their first pilot to lead the tech group.

The sector model was a booming success and Donovan rapidly moved up the ranks at Fidelity. As the program grew and expanded, Donovan was given an entire team to manage, and he led the group for over eight years as director of daily operations. He collaborated regularly with Fidelity’s top Fund Managers and met with major analysts on Wall Street, and his trading desk earned a reputation as the best trading desk on Wall Street.

Over the course of his thirteen year career with Fidelity Investments, Mr. Donovan spent five years as Senior Equity Trader, eight years as Director of Fidelity’s Technology Group, and was consistently the highest ranked trader of his 40-trader group every year from 1999-2005. He returned an average gain of over 30% over the average weighted price and became the only trader allowed to proprietarily trade for five funds: OTC, Select Technology, Select Electronics, Mid Cap, and Aggressive Growth Fund.