Russell Investments hires two ex-execs from iShares for its ETF biz

Russell Investments moved a step closer to becoming an exchange-traded-fund provider yesterday when it announced that it has appointed James Polisson managing director of its global ETF business and Andrew Arenberg managing director of global ETF distribution. Before joining Russell, both were top executives at iShares Funds, a unit of Barclays Global Investors, now BlackRock Inc., and the largest ETF provider in the country. Their appointments follow Russell's application — first made in July — for permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer both passive and active ETFs. Because its applications are still pending, Mr. Polisson said he couldn't go into detail about Russell's plans. Nevertheless, he said he believes that the time has come for actively managed ETFs. “The industry is sorting out how to move from index-based ETFs to commodities, currency and active ETFs,” Mr. Polisson said. “That's the frontier, and that's where Russell wants to be.” Mr. Polisson most recently served as BGI's chief marketing officer, with responsibilities that included BGI's iShares global business. At BGI since 1998, he was head of global risk management for two years before joining the iShares business. Mr. Arenberg most recently worked as a managing director in BGI's global online business and he served as managing director of channel marketing for BGI for six years. He was involved in growing and managing U.S. iShares' marketing activities and building out the iShares presence in Asia and Latin America.