It was another year of senior management reshuffle in the European ETF industry in 2023 with CEOs stepping down and market stalwarts retiring.
From index providers, market makers and the ‘Big Three’, the ETF industry has been looking to build its sales and product teams as new market entrants looking to make their mark.
Major departures have also led to senior reshuffles at some of the world’s largest asset managers.
With this in mind, ETF Stream looks at some of the biggest people moves in 2023.
1. AXA IM poaches global ETF sales head from JP Morgan AM
One of the biggest moves of the year came in January when AXA Investment Managers named Olivier Paquier as global head of ETF sales from JP Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM).
Paquier made the switch from one active ETF provider to another and is responsible for distributing the French giant's recently launched ETF range globally.
He joined AXA IM after five years at JPMAM, most recently as ETF distribution head for EMEA. Prior to this, he was head of SPDR ETF in France, Monaco, Spain and Portugal at State Street Global Advisors (SSGA).
2. Morningstar Indexes head of Europe departs
In April, Morningstar Indexes head of Europe Tobias Sproehnle departed just 18 months after he joined following the acquisition of Moorgate Benchmarks to “pursue other opportunities”.
Sproehnle, who founded Moorgate Benchmarks alongside Gareth Parker in 2018, was CEO of the business until Morningstar Indexes acquired the firm for an undisclosed fee in September 2021 in a bid to add index design, calculation and administration technology capabilities to its data.
He has over 20 years industry experience working at Eurex as a senior product manager before joining IHS Markit as head of credit indices and later becoming head of fixed income at FTSE Russell.
3. Goldman Sachs appoints Blumberg as EMEA COO of ETF Accelerator
Following the launch of its ETF Accelerator platform, ETF Stream revealed the appointment of industry veteran Jürgen Blumberg as chief operating officer for EMEA.
Blumberg, based in London, is tasked with building out the firm’s European business having joined the company at the start of 2022. He will be responsible for communicating the platform-as-a-service solution to clients and assisting in executing ETF launches.
Prior to taking on the role, he spent four years as head of ETF product and capital markets at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Before this, he was head of ETF capital markets at Invesco and four years in a similar role at BlackRock.
4. State Street’s head of SPDR ETF Rory Tobin
One of the biggest industry stories of the year came when Rory Tobin, head of ETF business at SSGA, announced his retirement following a 35-year career in financial services.
Tobin (pictured), who was named announced his departure in June following an eight-year stint at SSGA, five of which he spent as head of the SSGA ETF business. During his time at the firm, he helped grow the franchise to more than $1trn assets under management (AUM).
Prior to this, he spent two years at Barclays Wealth and Investment Management as managing director and also held roles at BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.
5. London Stock Exchange promotes Stanley to head of ETFs
In a shake-up of senior management, London Stock Exchange (LSE) promoted Michael Stanley to head of ETFs, responsible for managing both the listings and the trading business as the group looks to develop its offering.
Stanley joined LSE in 2012 as a business support analyst, entering the financial services industry for the first time and became head of exchange-traded product development in March 2021.
His promotion came roughly a month after the group named Fiona Bassett as CEO of FTSE Russell from DWS.
6. Cboe poaches EMEA ETP head from London Stock Exchange
Following Stanely’s promotion, it emerged that Lida Eslami, former head of ETPs and relationship management at LSE, joined Cboe Global Markets as head of ETPs for EMEA.
She joined the business in July and is responsible for growing Cboe’s ETF business in EMEA as part of its global listings offering. Eslami spent 12 years at LSE and before this was in the Xtrackers ETF structuring team at DWS for a year.
Her appointment came a month after Cboe launched its global listing offerings in a bid to facilitate global access to capital and secondary liquidity for companies and ETFs.
7. Amundi poaches ETFs head from BlackRock as Llinas departs
One of the biggest hires of the year came when Amundi appointed Benoit Sorel as global head of ETF, indexing and smart beta, replacing Arnaud Llinas.
Sorel (pictured) joined from BlackRock where he has been responsible for leading the EMEA product and distribution strategy for ETFs and investing since 2018. In his new role, he will be responsible for leading the French asset manager’s passive arm as it looks to fend off competition from rivals DWS and Vanguard.
Llinas spent two years in the role at Amundi having joined following the acquisition of Lyxor where he was for 11 years.
8. Global X CEO Berruga departs after a decade
After a five-and-a-half-year stint as CEO Luis Berruga announced his departure to “spend more time with his friends and family”.
Having joined the firm in 2014 as chief operating officer and chief financial officer in January 2014, Berruga oversaw a doubling of Global X’s ETF market share since taking over as CEO in February 2018.
He also led the firm’s entry into Europe in December 2020 and the acquisition of ETF Securities Australia in July 2022 during his time as CEO.
9. MSCI appoints head of index from ARK Invest
In another major index provider move, MSCI named Jana Haines as head of index and a member of its index committee from ARK Invest.
Haines (pictured) will be responsible for developing and executing MSCI’s global index product strategy and will partner with some of the indexing giant’s senior leaders to drive innovation across market cap, sustainability, climate, factor, thematics, fixed income and private asset classes.
It is her second stint at MSCI having spent 14 years at the firm before leaving to join Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest as chief strategy officer.
10. GHCO names new CEO following Izzo departure
Market maker GHCO appointed Alex Gladkow as CEO in December following the departure of Dan Izzo. Gladkow will be responsible for leading the firm during its next period of growth and his appointment comes almost a year after Mirae Asset Securities acquired the market maker in a $40m deal.
Formerly chief operating officer of GHCO, he joined Mirae in August 2022 as director of ETF sales and marketing. Prior to this he spent nine years at Tradeweb, most recently based in New York for five years as the director of rates sales.
Having started his career at Morgan Stanley in 2007 as a traders assistant on the ETF desk and later became an equity sales specialist at the business.
