BlackRock said Thursday it is moving the production of its research on exchange-traded funds to a new unit and the long-timer producer of its "ETF Landscape" reports will be leaving the company.
The research will be produced by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the company said. Russ Koesterich, the global chief investment strategist at its iShares exchange-traded fund business, "will help define the ETF research agenda as we move forward,'' the firm said.
Leaving BlackRock will be Deborah Fuhr, "who made a strong contribution to ETF research during her tenure," according to Christine Hudacko, a corporate communications specialist in the company's San Francisco office.
BlackRock will continue publish research under the "ETF Landscape" brand, she said but "we'll also be looking to provide deeper insights, analysis and commentary on the fast-growing ETF marketplace."
Besides Koesterich, the research from the institute will include commentary from Joe Linhares in Europes, the Middle East and Asia, Jennifer Grancio in the U.S and Canada, Daniel Gamba in Latin America and Nick Good in Asia, she said, in an email message.
BlackRock is the largest marketer of exchange-traded funds, with $474.7 billion of invested assets under its management, according to June statistics compiled by the National Stock Exchange.
Fuhr was the global head of ETF Research and Implementation Strategy at BlackRock and a managing director.
For four years, BlackRock's group has been ranked first for Exchange Traded Fund Research by investors in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas in a global survey conducted by ExchangeTradedFunds.com.
