Legg Mason has hired Rick Genoni and Brandon Clark to lead the firm’s strategy in the ETF product category. The team joins Legg Mason from The Vanguard Group where they collectively had nearly 18 years of experience in the ETF business. Mr. Genoni led Vanguard’s Index and ETF product management team and Mr. Clark led Vanguard’s ETF Capital Markets Group.
“Our product development agenda is driven by our clients’ needs and preferences. The ETF vehicle continues to evolve beyond the delivery of traditional index-based passive products and we want to have the ability to offer an ETF vehicle where it is beneficial to clients and consistent with our affiliates’ existing investment process. At the same time, we believe there is also significant opportunity to create innovative new products within the ETF structure to solve client needs,” said Thomas Hoops, Executive Vice President of Business Development for Legg Mason.
Mr. Hoops continued, “Rick and Brandon’s deep experience in this segment will allow them to work with our affiliates to identify the best opportunities in this growing segment. They have also both successfully launched and grown an ETF product line within a traditional mutual fund firm and have experience in the educational partnership necessary for success with both distribution partners and clients.”
Rick Genoni said, “The opportunity to build a new business at a large, global asset management firm is a very exciting one. Legg Mason, with its strong, investment oriented culture and exceptional investment affiliates, was an attractive partner. Both we and Legg Mason are excited about the opportunities available for asset management firms to create innovative new ways to serve investors in an ETF structure.”
Both men have significant experience in structuring and creating innovative products, and working with regulators and other relevant parties to launch those products. In their respective roles, they had responsibility for ongoing management of the firm’s ETF lineup and index mutual funds and maintaining relationships with market makers, exchanges and other important capital markets stakeholders. As part of each of their roles, they educated institutional and retail clients on using these products in portfolios and represented the firm on ETF market structure issues.