70 years young

The US economy was booming, boosted by post-war spending. In 1955, the General Motors Corporation became the first US company to make over US$1 billion in a year.

It was not just in the US that the economy and companies were thriving. Post-war rebuilding in Japan and Europe had led to strong growth.

Back then, transacting on international share markets was more difficult than it is today. It was 70 years ago this week that John C van Eck Jr, who had begun his financial career as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in 1946 after serving in the US Navy during the war years, started his investment firm.

The focus of the new investment company was to provide a vehicle for American investors to invest in foreign growth stocks so that they too could access the potential opportunities in the post-World War II economic recoveries of Europe and Japan. 

John C van Eck Jr was born in San Francisco in 1915. His father was Jan Carel van Panthaleon van Eck, who was the founder of the American branch of the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company, then a Dutch British firm.

Like his father, John C van Eck Jr saw opportunity in patience and learning. In 1968, after studying under the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises at New York University, van Eck Jr moved the bulk of the International Investors’ Fund into gold mining shares. The move was predicated on the notion that the rapid growth the world was experiencing would lead to inflation and that gold, and therefore its miners, would offer better growth prospects than other markets.

The International Investors Gold Fund¹ remains the oldest fund to concentrate on precious metals mining shares, and van Eck Jr converted it in time for investors to participate in the great gold bull market of the 1970s.

This week, we mark the 70th anniversary of VanEck, the firm created by John C van Eck Jr in 1955. Throughout that time, VanEck has consistently been a trailblazer.

In the 1990s, recognising the prominence of China, the firm focused on the rising influence of emerging markets and remains a leader in both emerging markets equity and bond markets.  

In 2006, as investors’ desire for liquidity, diversification and efficiency led to the growth of ETFs, it launched the US’s first-ever gold miners ETF.

Since then, VanEck has become a global ETF leader, offering cutting-edge strategies in smart beta, alternative assets and thematic exposures.

VanEck was among the first firms to identify the disruptive potential of digital assets on financial services and beyond. In 2017, VanEck’s subsidiary, MarketVector, became the first regulated index provider to calculate digital asset indices.

At its core, VanEck has always been about forward thinking - not just identifying where markets are going, but why. Our philosophy has never been to chase trends, but to lead with conviction, deep research and a long-term perspective.

We invest where we see durable value, and we aim to build portfolios that empower investors to participate in the future with clarity and purpose. With asset management businesses around the world, VanEck is now global.

Today, John’s legacy continues with visionary global CEO Jan van Eck. As founder and CEO of the Australian business, I believe that our strong philosophical alignment and shared sense of purpose have formed the bedrock of the why and the what of our local business, and the success that has transpired since we launched our first ETFs here in 2013.

VanEck has always stood for more than just investment products – we have stood for access, innovation, and integrity in a constantly evolving financial world. Over the past 70 years, our firm has left a lasting imprint on the global investment landscape by identifying transformative themes early and building investor access where none previously existed.

Our impact is not just measured in performance metrics, but in the democratisation of financial opportunity. We have helped investors of all sizes gain access to tools that were once reserved for institutions, often by being first movers. By doing so, we have helped shift how people invest, diversify and build resilience in their portfolios.

Our legacy is built on a foundation of integrity, trust and excellence. The same principles will shape our future. We are a firm of strong ideas, deep intellectual capital and a global team committed to doing things differently and doing them well. As we look ahead to the next 70 years, our ambition remains unchanged: to give investors access to the opportunities that will define the world ahead.

Looking forward, VanEck will continue to operate where innovation meets conviction. New technologies, a global realignment, rising demand for transparency, accessibility and values-driven capital allocation, we believe, will shape the next era of investing.

Our commitment is to continue shaping a financial future that is more open, more innovative, and more aligned with the opportunities and challenges of a changing world. The spirit that John C van Eck Jr created in 1955 remains alive today.

Access the opportunities.

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¹This fund is only available to US investors