NEW YORK, April 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Dow Jones Indices ("S&P DJI"), the world's leading index provider, today announced that after nearly 40 years at S&P Global, David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee, is retiring effective in August.

In his leadership role, Dr. Blitzer oversees the Index Governance function for S&P DJI's entire index offering and chairs various S&P DJI Index Committees, including those responsible for the iconic S&P 500® and Dow Jones Industrial Average®.

"With David's appointment to Chairman of the U.S. Equity Index Committee in 1995, a new era in index governance was ushered in," says Douglas L. Peterson, President and Chief Executive Officer of S&P Global. "The level of transparency, integrity, and independence that David brought to our global family of indices is the reason why S&P Dow Jones Indices is viewed as the gold standard in the indexing industry."

"David is a trusted colleague and friend to many of us. Always unassuming, and generous of his time and knowledge, David has provided us all with disciplined leadership and intellectual rigor to index analysis and management," says Alex Matturri, Chief Executive Officer at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "We will miss David's leadership, intellect, generosity and sense of humor, as well as his ubiquitous bowtie."

Dr. Blitzer has held several senior positions during his illustrious career at S&P Global. He first joined The McGraw-Hill Companies (now S&P Global), S&P DJI's parent company, in September 1980 as a corporate economist. In 1982, he was appointed as Standard & Poor's chief economist, and later in 1989 joined the Index Committee, ultimately becoming its chairman in 1995.

Since assuming the role of index committee chair, Dr. Blitzer has been one of the financial industry's most recognized, trusted, and sought-after thought leaders. His contributions to the financial markets have helped countless investors, analysts, journalists, governments, and investment professionals navigate a myriad market conditions and effectively gauge the overall health of the global stock market.

His stellar list of achievements are many with the most recent being the William F. Sharpe Indexing Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. In the year 2000, Dr. Blitzer was named to SmartMoney magazine's distinguished list of the 30 most influential people in the world of investing, which ranked him seventh, and in the year 1998, he was named the nation's top economist, receiving the Blue Chip Economic Forecasting Award for most accurately predicting the country's leading economic indicators for four years in a row.

ABOUT S&P DOW JONES INDICES

S&P Dow Jones Indices is the largest global resource for essential index-based concepts, data and research, and home to iconic financial market indicators, such as the S&P 500^® and the Dow Jones Industrial Average^®. More assets are invested in products based on our indices than products based on indices from any other provider in the world. Since Charles Dow invented the first index in 1884, S&P DJI has been innovating and developing indices across the spectrum of asset classes helping to define the way investors measure and trade the markets.

S&P Dow Jones Indices is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI), which provides essential intelligence for individuals, companies, and governments to make decisions with confidence. For more information, visit www.spdji.com.

SOURCE S&P Dow Jones Indices