Fidelity Investments filled in a piece of its upper management puzzle yesterday, naming an outsider to run several key divisions -- though not its core mutual-fund operations.

The Boston financial-services giant said Rodger A. Lawson will take over as president of FMR Corp., Fidelity's parent company, following the departure of its chief operating officer Robert L. Reynolds in April.

Lawson, 60, was vice chairman of Prudential Financial Inc. of New Jersey until he stepped down this spring. He previously worked at Fidelity in the late 1980s. Notably, reporting to Lawson will be Abigail P. Johnson, the head of Fidelity's employer-services unit and daughter of Fidelity chairman and chief executive Edward C. "Ned" Johnson III, and Ellyn A. McColgan, the brokerage division chief who in April also was put in charge of distribution and operations.

Both women have been seen as potential heirs to Ned Johnson, who recently turned 77, but Lawson's appointment had specialists who follow Fidelity yesterday recalculating the odds of who might be Fidelity's next chief executive -- a subject the company so far has declined to discuss in detail.

"It certainly puts someone up there who fills the void" of Reynolds's departure, said Eric Kobren, executive editor of Fidelity Insight, an investor newsletter in Wellesley. The appointment cre ates what Kobren called a "horse race" for the chief executive's job between Lawson and the two women, a management tactic typical of Ned Johnson.

Fidelity Insight editor John Bonnanzio noted Fidelity's mutual fund managers will continue reporting to Ned Johnson, whereas previously Reynolds had overseen the area. Lawson "doesn't yet appear to have the same power and authority that Reynolds had," Bonnanzio said.

Lawson's age makes him an unlikely succession candidate, however, said James Lowell, who edits the rival Fidelity Investor newsletter. Instead, Lowell said the appointment continues moves by Ned Johnson to surround himself with past senior executives .

"Ned brings back someone like Lawson because he wants to stay at the helm a little longer and wants to bring back his senior senators to help rechart the course," Lowell said.

Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley said the executives would not be available for interviews yesterday. Asked whether the company will also name someone to replace Stephen P. Jonas, who was head of Fidelity's FMR Co. mutual fund unit before leaving in January, Crowley said the unit "has always reported to Ned on investment matters. We're going forward with the leadership we have at this time."

In a statement Ned Johnson said "Rodger has the breadth of financial services experience, as well as experience with Fidelity, which makes him ideally suited for this job."

Among other jobs, from 1985 to 1991 Lawson was managing director and chief executive of Fidelity Investments-Retail, according to the company's press release, a role Kobren said included deciding where to run advertising and which funds to pitch. Since then Lawson "has significantly broadened his experience at Prudential and elsewhere and we believe he is the right person for the job," Johnson said in the statement.

Lawson also brings to Fidelity a marketing background lacking since Reynolds' s departure, having overseen the area and others at Prudential since 1996. Most recently he was Prudential vice chairman, responsible for the company's international insurance and investments division.

Lowell said he expects Lawson will rejuvenate marketing efforts and start to renew advertising for particular funds, rather than the broader campaigns Fidelity has run in recent years that have focused more on retirement savings and its brand name.

Fidelity may have had no choice given the lagging performance of many large funds such as its flagship Magellan fund. But Magellan has had a good run so far this year after a slow start by fund manager Harry Lange, and could soon be ready to accept money from new investors and for advertising, Lowell said. In Lawson, "Fidelity is bringing back into the fold someone who understands its core business," he said.

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