People Moves

ETF Securities Makes Senior Hires

Rachel Walsh 19 May 2009

ETF Securities Makes Senior Hires

ETF Securities, providers of Exchange Traded Commodities and Exchange Traded Funds, has strengthened its team with two appointments: Scott Thompson will head up sales in the UK and Irish markets and Townsend Lansing joins the product development and structuring team as a senior manager.

The firm said Mr Thompson’s appointment was in direct response to growing investor demand in the UK and Irish markets for ETCs and ETFs, and he will head up the team alongside Will Rhind, Neil Jamieson and Rachel Kersey-Brown. He joins from JP Morgan where he was head of market making for ETFs, with responsibility for running the risk programme trading desk and setting up their ETF business in Europe since 2006.

Previously, he spent a number of years as part of the futures and options team at UBS having joined in 1997, before taking a sabbatical in 2002 to complete an MBA. Following this, he returned to UBS as the global business manager for equity operations where he was one of the original market makers for gold and oil ETCs in London.

Mr Lansing joins from Banc of America where he was a vice president in new product development in equity derivatives and prior to this he spent over five years working as a lawyer in capital markers, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity.

ETF Securities has continued to hire across all areas of the business, despite the financial crisis. Within the last 12 months the firm's headcount has increased by over 100 per cent from 17 to 40 employees.

The management of ETF Securities created the world's first ETC in 2003 - Gold Bullion Securities in Australia and London - which now has approximately $2 billion in assets. In 2005, ETF Securities created the world's first oil ETC and in 2006 ETF Securities created the world's first ETC platform on the London Stock Exchange, making available 19 commodities and 10 indices. In 2007, ETF Securities launched its physically-backed precious metals ETC platform which made platinum and palladium available for the first time.

Last year, the company launched the largest platform of thematic sector ETFs in Europe, providing exposure to coal, steel, shipping and nuclear power.

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