Charles Flather has worked in investment management for more than 50 years. After receiving an A.B. from Harvard College, he served two years in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Then, following the Harvard Business School, where he earned an M.B.A. with Distinction, he began working at a Boston investment firm, State Street Research and Management Company as a securities analyst. Subsequently, he became a portfolio manager in the corporate pension fund area and was later placed in charge of this segment of the firm's business, which totaled $8 billion. He directly managed more than $2 billion of these assets. He also became one of the five managing partners of the company.

State Street Research was sold to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York in 1983; and after departing two years later, he founded his own investment firm, Middlegreen Associates, which he managed for 29 years. Middlegreen's focus was on marketable securities, particularly equities. Now retired, Mr. Flather continues to provide valuable counsel to several investment management firms and other organizations.