Russell hires James Polisson to head global ETF business
Andy Arenberg also joins Russell's ETF team to pursue "next-generation" innovation
SINGAPORE January 27, 2010 - Russell Investments has appointed James Polisson as managing director of Russell's global ETF business and Andrew Arenberg as managing director of global ETF distribution. Both previously were instrumental in building BGI's global iShares business. They joined Russell in mid-January and will be based in San Francisco.
"Russell's heritage of innovation and thought leadership across the spectrum of investment services uniquely positions us to be a leader in the next evolution of the ETF industry," said Russell's CEO and President Andrew Doman. "I'm very pleased to welcome both of these experienced ETF innovators to Russell in order to marshal 'next-generation' thinking on a broad range of ETF-related opportunities."
Doman noted that Russell already serves as a leading provider of indexes within the ETF industry through its licensing agreements with iShares and other major ETF sponsors. The hiring of Polisson and Arenberg, he added, aims to complement these existing relationships as Russell develops other ETF opportunities.
"For 75 years Russell has consistently delivered innovative solutions to meet investors' needs, and as the ETF industry progresses we're examining how we can bring our unique insight and strong research capability to add value for investors in the ETF space," Doman said. "Russell always has had a strong and deep leadership team, and we're expanding it with these two new positions as we broaden our global business."
Polisson said, "We look forward to focusing on next-generation solutions for the ETF industry with a mission to complement what's currently available with new, innovative strategies. This is the right time, Russell is uniquely positioned, and I'm excited to have this opportunity to guide Russell's global ETF team."
Polisson most previously served as BGI's chief marketing officer with responsibilities that included BGI's iShares global business. At BGI since 1998, he was head of Global Operations Risk Management for two years before joining the iShares business.
Arenberg most previously worked as a managing director in BGI's global eBusiness, and he served as managing director of channel marketing for BGI for six years. He was instrumental in growing and managing U.S. iShares' marketing activities and building out the iShares presence in Asia Pacific and Latin America. Prior to joining BGI, he served on the corporate strategy team in the institutional business at Charles Schwab & Co.
About Russell
Russell Investments is a global investment company with $176 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2009. Russell serves individual, institutional and advisor clients in more than 40 countries and provides investment solutions including mutual funds, retirement investments, institutional asset management, implementation services and global stock market indexes. Russell is world-renowned for its depth of manager research, quality of manager selection and access to some of the world's leading investment managers. It helps investors of all sizes put this access to work in corporate defined benefit and defined contribution plans, and in the life savings of individual investors.
Founded in 1936 and headquartered in Tacoma, Russell operates principal offices in Amsterdam, Auckland, Johannesburg, London, Melbourne, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto.
