On The Move
By Journal of Indexes Staff

Fuhr Joins BGI

Deborah Fuhr, arguably the biggest name globally in ETF research, has joined BGI in the new position of global head of ETFs research and implementation strategy. Fuhr will be based in BGI's London office and will focus on increasing education and clarifying the exchange-traded product universe for investors around the globe.

Fuhr left Morgan Stanley this summer after 10 years, where she was a managing director and head of the investment strategies group, covering the ETF sector for the brokerage giant, among other investment products.

At BGI, Fuhr will focus on the opportunities to increase the growth rate of ETF assets in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, among other global markets, where the uptake of ETFs on the retail side has trailed adoption of ETFs by retail investors in the saturated U.S. market.

PIMCO Co-CEO Stepping Down

Bill Thompson, co-CEO of PIMCO, is planning to step down at the end of the year. Mohamed El-Erian will become sole CEO. The two have shared the top duties at the fund giant since El-Erian returned in January from a two-year stint running the Harvard University endowment. El-Erian comes out of a deep investing background, whereas Thompson's strength was on growing the asset manager as a company, most notably through the deal for PIMCO to be acquired by German financial services giant Allianz in 2000. El-Erian will remain co-chief investment officer with Bill Gross, in addition to serving as CEO. One of the major PIMCO initiatives yet to play out under El-Erian's sole reign will be the introduction of active and passive ETFs.

Vanguard CEO Transition Completed

William McNabb became CEO of The Vanguard Group as of Aug. 31, replacing William Brennan, who had served as Vanguard CEO since 1996. The transition plan had originally been announced in February. It initially took the market by surprise, as Brennan was far from retirement age and the fund company had grown tremendously under his leadership.

McNabb has headed up Vanguard's retail and institutional divisions in the past.

Barclays Names LatAm ETF Leader

BGI named Alejandro Reynoso as chief investment officer and regional director for its growing ETF business in Latin America. Reynoso came to BGI from the Mexican Stock Exchange, where he was managing director for corporate strategy. Reynoso will be responsible for BGI's product development and management efforts across Latin America, including Mexico and offshore markets. He will be based in San Francisco and report to Daniel Gamba, CEO of Latin America and the Caribbean for BGI.

The Latin American ETF market is still nascent in its formation as compared with other global markets, but many market watchers expect it to be an area of extensive growth in the coming years, and both index licensers and ETF providers are actively working to set up deals across Latin America.

XShares CEO Leaves Firm

Anthony Dudzinski, CEO of XShares Advisors, left the company in mid-July. The company does not expect to name a permanent replacement before the end of the year, and Joseph Schocken of merchant bank Broadmark Capital is currently filling in the position in the interim.

Jeffrey Feldman, the company's founder and chief strategist, has taken over Dudzinski's role as director and chairman of the TDX Independence Funds' board of directors. The TDX Independence ETF fund family was started by XShares in conjunction with brokerage firm TD Ameritrade and is the industry's first family of target date funds.