In 1995, Blitzer was appointed to be the chairman of the committee that decides which stocks are added or bumped from the index. As he settled into the role, he asked his predecessor what he could do differently than he had. "Go and tell everyone about [the index]," came the response.
"Thirty-eight years the index was around, yet we had never promoted it in a huge way in the public. That was my charge," Blitzer said. Getting it to become a household name like the Dow Jones industrial average became a goal.
It’s safe to say his mission has been accomplished.