Kranefuss Leaves iShares
Lee Kranefuss, chairman of the world’s biggest ETF company, iShares, has stepped down from his post and been replaced by George Packer, a professor emeritus of finance at Stanford University. The change was effective April 30, iShares said in a press release. Kranefuss had been interested in stepping down for some time, according to a spokeswoman at the San Francisco-based firm, which is now a subsidiary of BlackRock. He had served as chairman since 2003 after joining the firm in 1997, just after it became part of Barclays Global Investors.
Russell Hires Ken O’Keeffe
Russell said that it had hired Ken O’Keeffe, formerly the global head of client services at MSCI Barra, as its regional director in the Americas for ETFs based on Russell Indexes, in April.
O’Keeffe’s new responsibilities will include overseeing the licensing of Russell’s indexes to ETF providers as well as guiding the development of new indexes for use as the basis for ETFs.
Russell also promoted Jamie Forbes to regional director for ETFs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She is based in Russell’s London offices.
Oulton Departs FTSE
In a series of updates, Responsible-Investor.com reported in April that FTSE’s director of responsible investment was leaving the company in May to become the European head of responsible investment at Mercer, a consulting firm.
David Harris, the head of FTSE’s responsible investment operations, was promoted to fill Will Oulton’s role, the Web site said.
According to the site, Oulton is a well-known authority on responsible investment and was recently named vice president of the European Sustainable Investment Forum (Eurosif).
Markit Names Grimes As MD
At the end of March, Markit said it had named Paul Grimes as managing director of equities and index operations.
Grimes was a founding member of FTSE Group, ultimately serving as the index provider’s chief operating officer before his departure.
At Markit, Grimes is overseeing the firm’s equity and fixed-income index business. He also shares responsibility for Markit’s dividend forecast, index management and ETF services with Director Bernie Thurston.
Jamie Farmer Named DJI Executive Director
In mid-April, Dow Jones Indexes announced that it had named Jamie Farmer as executive director.
Previously the senior director of global index operations and head of exchange relationships, Farmer’s role has now expanded to encompass responsibility for DJI’s global sales and business development.
Farmer joined DJI in 2006 from Susquehanna International Group LLP. |
