While 2020 has thrown challenges at some amid the global coronavirus pandemic, for others, opportunities have arisen for career moves and progression through team expansion and business launches.
Here are some people move highlights for those within Europe’s ETF industry who have found working from home presented new opportunities.
Most recently, Global X entered the European ETF market with a double launch which followed the announcement of two senior hires.
Rob Oliver joined the firm from JP Morgan as head of business development alongside the director of research Morgane Delledonne who left BMO Global Asset Management’s following the Canadian asset manager's exit from Europe.
Several other ETF issuers expanded their European teams including Lyxor.
In April and November, the French asset manager completed two key appointments for its German and Austria operations in the form of Heike Fürpaß-Peter who heads the ETF business in the region before being appointed head of Germany later in the year along with Tim Breitbach who is head of institutional sales.
Elsewhere, many firms completed multiple promotions to replace those who stepped down from their senior roles. This includes S&P Dow Jones Indices’ CEO Alexander Matturri who stepped down after 13 years as CEO, being replaced by Invesco’s global head of ETFs Dan Draper in April.
Replacing Draper, Invesco promoted Anna Paglia the following month from her role as head of legal for the firm’s US ETF and business.
Elsewhere, the US giant hired its Nordic ETF business development head Fredrik Nilsson from BlackRock, filling the shoes of Abdallah Muhammad who left the firm to take a similar role at Tabula Investment Management.
Tabula continued its expansion this year having entered the market just two years ago in 2018. The fixed income ETF specialist hired former Goldman Sachs Asset Management's Jason Smith as chief investment officer in February before also hiring its sovereign client relationships head and Italian country manager.
Most recently Tabula hired managing director Stefan Garcia who rejoins his former Source colleague Michael John Lytle, CEO of Tabula.
The ETF industry's biggest people moves in 2019
Having also helped launch its first ETF in 2018, HANetf has significantly expanded its team in 2020. The white-label ETF issuer made a triple appointment in May to its sales and marketing team, covering various regions across Europe.
The firm also hired Rick van Leeuwen as director of sales for Benelux in June before also appointing Anil Sood as head of customer acquisition.
While numerous ETF enthusiasts move across the European landscape, several ETF and indexing gurus have hung up their hats.
At the end of July, ETF Stream revealed DWS’s global head of ETFs and index investing Manooj Mistry stepped down after 14 years with the German asset manager.
Additionally, this year also saw the departure of MSCI’s global head of ESG indexes Deborah Yang leaving after 19 years but has continued her role as co-President of Women in ETFs for EMEA.
