Tom Marsico: Colorado's money man: fund manager's success began with med-school rejection.

• Author: Dubay, Keith
• Position: Thomas F. Marsico - Biography

The list, if there is one, of native Coloradans who can turn to their assistant and say, "Get me General Electric's Jeff Immelt on the phone" must be a short one. Or Procter & Gamble's A.G. Lafley, or even Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan. [paragraph] But Tom Marsico, president of Marsico Capital Management, is on that list. [paragraph] At the tender age of 50, Marsico has quietly made himself into one of Colorado's most important business and civic leaders. The son of a Wheat Ridge dentist who wanted--and in his heart, still does--to be a doctor, manages more than $50 billion in mutual and private funds; he is a key to reviving a Colorado mutual-fund industry racked by scandal and buyouts; he has given, with his wife Cydney, nearly $80 million to public schools, universities and research; and he is worth more than $500 million in his own right.

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But if you don't know much more about Thomas F. Marsico, perhaps it is not your fault. Marsico might be better known outside of Colorado than he is here. When he returned from New York to Denver as a young fund manager to take over Janus' value fund, Denver wasn't even a blip on the international mutual-fund radar. In a few short years, Marsico and another young manager, Jim Craig, turned in explosive performances that resulted in Marsico's being named the Morningstar mutual-fund rating service Fund Manager of the Year for 1989.

Janus Funds, as we know them today, was born then, and went on to lead a group of Denver mutual funds into a sizzling decade-long performance run that featured growth-style momentum investing and that eventually allowed Marsico to start his own fund-management company in 1997. He sold that company to Bank of America in 2000 for a $1.1 billion, but he still manages its funds.

Yet the kid from Wheat Ridge who thought it was the end of the world when he was denied admission into the University of Colorado School of Medicine, remains quintessential Colorado. He's here and staying here; and even though he has no contractual relationship with "B of A," as it is known, he plans to continue his Marsico Capital Management stewardship.

"It's fun," he says. "I like to understand why and how people think, how organizations work and how political systems govern. I enjoyed playing chess when I was a kid, and now I feel like I'm playing chess on a four-dimensional chessboard. Macroeconomic forces, political, social, industry, individual-company, trying to make its way through all this stuff."

But Marsico is not satisfied with just making money. He wants to contribute in other ways. Wife Cydney devotes a large portion of her time with the Women's Foundation, which works with underprivileged school kids. The couple's CTM Foundation...