Paul Mazzilli, one of the first dedicated exchange-traded funds analysts who helped build Morgan Stanley's team that tracked the industry in the U.S., has landed at alternative investments shop IndexIQ.

The Rye Brook, N.Y.-based indexing developer Monday named Mazzilli, whose departure from Morgan Stanley became public in November, as a senior advisor and member of the company's advisory board. (See related article here.)

“Given Paul’s longtime expertise in developing sophisticated asset allocation models, we are excited to work with him in developing products for the advisor community and we are pleased to have Paul’s vision and insight as a member of our team,” said Adam Patti, chief executive at IndexIQ, in a statement.

For his part, Mazzilli says he's attracted to the firm's quest to create index-based products that differ from traditional benchmarks. Last year, IndexIQ came out with a suite of investable index-based products mainly targeting institutional investors. In July, it also introduced the IQ Alpha Hedge Strategy Fund, the first no-load mutual fund to replicate hedge fund performances for retail investors. (See story here.)

Mazzilli, who joined Morgan Stanley in 1975, oversaw analysis of actively managed closed-end funds as well as passively managed index-linked exchange-traded products at the struggling financial services firm. He also guided the management of Morgan Stanley's Strategic Equity Portfolios (STEP) products and asset allocation models using ETFs.

At the time of his stepping down from full-time duties at Morgan Stanley, Mazzilli was believed to be looking for part-time assignments as a board-level advisor to ETF-related firms he found interesting. 

“IndexIQ has built a solid foundation in the alternative investment space and is a pioneer in some of the fastest-growing and most advanced areas of investment management,” said Mazzilli. “Our intention is to work together to create investable portfolios designed to provide diversification, liquidity, transparency and other key benefits, which are increasingly important in today’s volatile markets.”