Invesco Ltd. founder and former chairman and CEO Charles Brady died Dec. 7 in Atlanta. He was 84.

Regarded as a titan in the investment industry, Brady built Invesco out of an investment unit of a regional Atlanta-based bank in 1978, beginning with $400 million in assets under management. The firm expanded its asset base to $14 billion a decade after.

He became the firm's chairman in May 2006.

In a statement, Invesco President and CEO Marty Flanagan praised Brady for his unwavering resolve to make Invesco a global firm, calling him a pioneer in asset management. Brady's staff saw him as an "affable and confident leader who consistently coached and supported" them, Flanagan said.

Brady was born in Atlanta in 1935 and lived most of his life in the city. He graduated in 1959 from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a degree in industrial development. His first job was for a stockbroker. He then worked as an investment manager at Citizens and Southern Bank, from which he and several colleagues spun off a division that would become Invesco.