Franklin Templeton
San Mateo, California-based investment manager listed on the NYSE as BEN, with US$1.66 trillion of assets under management at September 2025. It has operated in the UAE since 2000 and opened a Riyadh office in 2024.
Industry: Asset management | Location: San Mateo, United States | Founded: 1947
About Franklin Templeton
Franklin Templeton is a global investment manager headquartered at One Franklin Parkway in San Mateo, California. Its parent company, Franklin Resources, Inc., is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BEN. It has offices in more than 30 countries. The business traces its origins to 1947, when Rupert H. Johnson Sr. founded it in New York City. It moved its offices to California in 1973 after acquiring a San Mateo-based firm. Growth since then has come substantially through acquisitions, among them Templeton in 1992, Legg Mason in 2020, Putnam in 2024 and Apera in 2025. Assets under management stood at about US$1.66 trillion in 2025, according to Wikipedia's company profile. A company press release cited in recent coverage put preliminary month-end assets at US$1.79 trillion as of June 30, 2026. In the Middle East, Franklin Templeton set up in the UAE in 2000, and Gulf News reported that its first regional office was in Abu Dhabi. The firm moved its operations to Dubai in 2004 and is described as the first global asset manager to establish in the Dubai International Financial Centre. Franklin Templeton Investments (ME) Ltd. is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. In March 2024 the firm launched operations in Saudi Arabia with a new office in Riyadh, after receiving "Managing Investments and Operating Funds" and "Advising" licences from the Capital Market Authority. The Dubai and Riyadh offices act as hubs for the firm's Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) business, and the company says more than 50 people work across the two. It marked its 25th anniversary in the region in 2025 and, the same year, added a solutions portfolio manager role in the UAE within Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions. Digital assets have become a visible part of the firm's recent strategy. Franklin Templeton operates tokenised money market fund shares through its Benji platform, and a collateral programme with Binance lets eligible clients use those shares as collateral for trading while the assets stay in regulated custody. In 2026 the firm agreed to acquire crypto asset manager 250 Digital and launched a dedicated unit, Franklin Crypto, led by Christopher Perkins with Seth Ginns as chief investment officer. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the company confirmed that BENJI tokens would be used as part of the payment, which it described as a step toward conducting M&A transactions on chain. Bitcoin Magazine and Cointelegraph reported the deal as closed on June 22, 2026. On its July 2026 earnings call, the company said digital assets accounted for about US$3.2 billion of assets under management, around 0.2% of the total, with US$2.4 billion in tokenised funds.
Leadership
- Jenny Johnson, Chief Executive Officer
- Matthew Nicholls, Co-President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer
- Daniel Gamba, Co-President and Chief Commercial Officer
- Sandeep Singh, Head of Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and India
- Muneera Al-Doassary, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Franklin Templeton Saudi Arabia
- Adam Spector, Chief Executive Officer, Fiduciary Trust International