ProFunds Names Johnson As CIO
Source: http://www.indexuniverse.com/sections/newsinfocus/5006-profunds-names-johnson-as-cio.html?Itemid=3&utm_source=straightstocks.com&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_campaign=rssPosted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 | In Exchange Traded Funds
The CIO position has been somewhat of a revolving door at ProFunds.
Asset manager ProFunds Group has plucked Todd Johnson from index and quantitative institutional money manager World Asset Management to be chief investment officer.
The CIO position has been somewhat of a revolving door at ProFunds and its exchange-traded funds group ProShares.
Gus Fleites, a longtime State Street Global Advisors official, took over the CIO reins in 2005. He lasted approximately a year in the role—a period of success for the company, especially with its ETFs—but left ProFunds under uncertain circumstances (see story here).
Fleites then moved to IndexIQ, but lasted only a few months in that job before leaving the hedge fund replication shop also.
The CIO that Fleites had replaced at ProFunds, William Seale, came back into the CIO role when Fleites left in 2006. George Foster, who had been a director of portfolios, assumed the CIO role in early 2008, after Seale’s second stint as CIO ended.
Johnson will oversee all investment operations for ProShares ETFs and ProFunds mutual funds. Foster is moving back to direct the firm’s product development strategy.
To ProFunds’ credit, the repeated shuffle in the CIO office has in no way slowed the growth of the company—which is now the fifth-largest ETF manager—or the growth in its ETF lineup. Just last month, ProShares brought out a slew of inverse and leveraged commodity and currency ETFs (see story here.)
World Asset Management has a larger footprint in fixed income, and Johnson could help the company extend its lineup of bond ETFs. ProShares launched its first inverse bond ETF earlier this year (see story here.)
World Asset also manages more than $13 billion in assets for pension plans, foundations and endowments. As institutions increase their use of ETFs, ProFunds and ProShares could be looking to gain a greater share of that market.
While Johnson oversaw more than 100 portfolios, including collective funds, mutual funds and separately managed accounts for equity, fixed income and REIT investments at World Asset Management, this will be his first foray into ETFs.
Johnson was president and chief investment officer at World Asset Management.
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Exchange Traded Funds, George Foster;, Gus Fleites;, index universe, Johnson As;, ProFunds Group;, ProShares ETFs;, State Street, Todd Johnson;, USD, William Seale;, World Asset Management;
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