The biggest moves in the ETF space in 2024

The last year has seen a number of appointments and exits in the ETF space, particularly with C-suite roles.

Money Management looks back at some of the key people moves of 2024.

February

While January marked a seemingly slow start to the year, February saw BlackRock promote Jason Collins, the firm’s deputy head of Australasia and head of ETF and index investments, to become its next head of Australia.

Meanwhile Global X announced a new US chief executive to drive its strategy and growth, welcoming Ryan O’Connor, former global head of ETF product at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. 

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March

The departures of the year commenced with the announcement this month that Tim Buckley, who was the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Vanguard, would retire at the end of the year.

Buckley was with Vanguard for over three decades and mostly recently held the role of CEO for seven years.  

He was succeeded by Salim Ramji, who brings more than 25 years to the role, including a decade at BlackRock where he was the global head of iShares and Index Investing. Ramji joined the firm in July. 

This month also saw Fidelity International appoint Keith Metters as its new president to take over from Anne Richards, who stepped down after five years. 

May

With Salim Ramji moving to take the role of CEO of Vanguard, iShares outlined a new management structure in May. 

Rather than a direct replacement for Ramji, the firm has created a global product strategy group led by Stephen Cohen as chief product officer.

It also promoted Rachel Lord as the head of international business across EMEA and Asia Pacific.

June

This month, VanEck appointed four new hires, outlining there is room for the firm to grow its presence with advisers as ETFs are tipped to grow to $220 billion by the end of 2024.

Connor Goggins joined VanEck’s business development and client solutions team from Bloomberg as its newest business development associate. Meanwhile, on its product and marketing teams, the firm hired Jenneth Orantia, Jessica Nightingale and Emily Wang.

Mid-June, Northern Trust Asset Management also announced the appointment of David Abner as its new head of global ETFs and funds. 

July

Global X has a new portfolio manager to its ranks to drive innovation, coinciding with the recent launch of its latest investment solution: the Global X Australian Bank Credit ETF (BANK).

The ETF provider welcomed Stephen Parker as a portfolio manager, where he oversees product design and development, portfolio and risk management, trading and execution, as well as client reporting.

August

This month, Global X Australia chief Evan Metcalf announced he would be stepping down from the role following a decade with the firm. The news came almost a year after Global X Australia saw the departure of both its head of distribution, Kanish Chugh, and its head of investment strategy, Blair Hannon. 

A week later, Global X also confirmed Cliff Man, head of portfolio management, will exit after having spent more than a decade with the company.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) announced it had looked internally to appoint its new global head of ETFs, tapping Travis Spence, head of ETF distribution for EMEA, for the role. 

September 

Global X subsequently announced Evan Metcalf’s successor, naming Alex Zaika as CEO on 4 November 2024.

Zaika was the managing director at GAM Investments where he worked since 2018 and previously spent three years at BlackRock and five years at Barclays Capital.

November 

Rounding off the year, multi-asset portfolio manager Andrew Harman was named head of investment strategy and asset allocation at Macquarie Wealth Management.

He joined the investment bank after more than 16 years at First Sentier Investors (FSI), where he most recently served as the head of multi-asset solutions.