H. Bruce Bond, founder, CEO and chairman of Invesco PowerShares, announced Wednesday that he will be scaling back his role with the exchange-traded fund provider.

An email letter from Bond addressed to “Our Valued Business Partners” explains that he is stepping away from the day-to-day management of the unit and that Ben Fulton, currently the executive vice president in charge of global product development, would be taking on those responsibilities as a managing director.

PowerShares’ leadership team will report to Fulton, who will also join the Invesco Global Product Committee. Invesco executives Andrew Schlossberg and David Warren will also take on leadership roles with the Invesco PowerShares unit.

Bond said he will remain active and involved with PowerShares, but that the change will give him more flexibility to work on other things. The original agreement with Invesco, however, remains in effect—including the financial terms and a noncompete agreement that bars Bond for five years from engaging in any activities that would be in direct competition with the firm that he founded. (Given that the acquisition was completed in September 2006, that would mean Bond would be free of restrictions sometime around September 2011.)

Bond originally founded PowerShares Capital Management in 2003. In the U.S., it currently has roughly 135 exchange-traded products, with about $40 billion in assets.

Fulton joined the PowerShares team in 2005 from Claymore Securities, where he was co-founder, president and CEO.

You can read the press release announcing Invesco’s acquisition of PowerShares here.