Sue Thompson to lead iShares' sales efforts in investment advisor channel. San Francisco-based Barclays Global Investors has hired Sue Thompson away from Vanguard to lead its iShares exchange-traded fund (ETF) sales efforts to registered investment advisors (RIAs).

"We're pleased to have someone of such [a] high caliber as Sue Thompson to join the iShares team to focus on serving RIAs," says iShares' institutional sales head Joe Linhares -- who adds that RIAs "are key iShares clients and among the most enthusiastic in embracing" the index funds.

First and second

Thompson will lead a12-member team that takes a consultative approach to persuading RIAs of the benefits of recommending iShares ETFs to their clients.

At Malvern, Pa.-based Vanguard Thompson was in charge wholesaling to full-service brokerage for the firm's Financial Advisor Services unit. She joined Vanguard in 1999 as senior counsel. Before that she was an attorney at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Thompson says she's "excited to join an organization that is a leader and innovator in the ETF industry."

With 190 ETFs and $287 billion in managed assets, Barclays' iShares is the biggest ETF wholesaler in the world. Boston-based State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), which introduced the first ETF in 1993, comes in second with managed assets of $113 billion in 67 ETFs at the end of October 2006.

Last September SSgA hired Tony Rochte, formerly Barclay's head of intermediary distribution for ETFs and alternatives. SSgA says it's determined to expand its ETF business. -FWR

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