Disclaimer: Views in this blog do not promote, and are not directly connected to any Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) product or service. Views are from a range of LGIM investment professionals and do not necessarily reflect the views of LGIM. For investment professionals only.

Tobias Merfeld

ETF Investment Strategist

Tobias joined LGIM as an ETF Investment Strategist in 2019.

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ESG and long-term themes

Rare Disease Day: raising awareness

More than 300 million people around the world suffer from what are known as rare diseases. Pharmaceutical companies have not historically focused on these illnesses, but new incentives are encouraging them to do so and breakthroughs are occurring.;
By Tobias Merfeld

ESG and long-term themes

Batteries: one size doesn’t fit all

Batteries don’t just come in sizes like AAA and AA anymore, and new battery technologies are creating new battery applications.;
By Tobias Merfeld

Equities

Border games: the challenges of international ecommerce

The world’s smelliest fruit is a case study in how ecommerce is overcoming the challenges of national borders.;
By Tobias Merfeld

Authors from the same team (13)

Aanand Venkatramanan

Head of ETF Investment Strategies, Index Funds

Aanand currently works at LGIM within the ETF team that was acquired from ETF Securities in March 2018. He joined ETF Securities as a Director, Quantitative Investment Strategies in May 2017. Prior to that, he worked at Barclays Capital and Goldman Sachs International as a Vice President within their index research and structuring groups respectively, and at University of Sussex as an Assistant Professor in Finance. He has also had a stint as an entrepreneur.

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Aude Martin

ETF Investment Specialist

Aude joined L&G ETF in July 2019 as a cross-asset ETF Investment Specialist. Prior to that, Aude worked as a delta one trader at Goldman Sachs and within the structured-products sales teams at HSBC and Credit Agricole CIB. As an investment specialist, she contributes towards the design of investment strategies and actively supports the ETF distribution and marketing efforts. She graduated from EDHEC Business School in 2016 with an MSc in Financial Markets.

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Chad Rakvin

Global Head of Index Funds

Now the Global Head of Index Funds, Chad came to LGIM in 2013 and has over 20 years' experience in the index space. Currently, he manages teams in the London, Chicago and Hong Kong offices. As a result, he has perfected the art of efficient communication, streamlined accuracy and airport management. He is known for driving innovation — through product, technology and process — that is the core of LGIM’s index management strategies. When not at the office, on a red-eye or at one his four children’s sporting events, Chad is still quite busy analyzing patterns and data trends — in the ultimate numbers game of decreasing his golf handicap.

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Cosmo Elms

Head of ETF Business Development

Cosmo joined LGIM’s ETF team in April 2019 as Head of Business Development. In this role he works on our strategic market positioning and ensuring our business continues to evolve as the industry progresses. Prior to this Cosmo was a Senior Product Strategy & Development manager at LGIM, contributing to the design and delivery of new pooled products at LGIM, as well as driving the firm’s product strategy across its investment range. Cosmo joined LGIM in February 2017 from Aberdeen Standard Investments where he worked in the Product Development team. Prior to that, he was an Investment Analyst in Mercer’s Investment Consulting Business where he advised pension fund and insurance clients on their investment strategy and manager selection. Cosmo graduated from Bristol University and holds an MEng in Civil Engineering. Cosmo also holds the IMC.

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Dave Barron

Head of Index Equity and Factor-based Investing

Dave leads the London based Index Equity team by overseeing portfolio management strategy, working on product development, and creating innovative rules-based client solutions. Prior to joining LGIM, Dave was based in the US where he worked at Northern Trust and BNY Mellon focusing on creating derivative based client solutions as well as managing index and ETF portfolios. In his spare time Dave likes exploring the impossible, so when he isn't reading about the latest multi-factor strategy he is reading books on chaos theory and quantum physics.

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Fadi Zaher

Head of Index Solutions, Index Funds

Fadi is a master of many trades with his focus across Index, Asset Allocation and Factor Based Investing. This is probably no surprise given his financial experience in the past 14 years ranges from heading up Barclays Wealth’s Fixed Income unit and Kleinwort Benson’s Bonds and Currencies teams, to working at the European Central Bank and even a stint researching and lecturing in finance and econometrics in Sweden. When he’s not honing his financial CV, Fadi can be found in his garden, tending to his plants with a particular fondness for his mint collection.

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Howie Li

Head of ETFs, Index funds

Howie leads the development and growth of the ETF business. Howie joined the investment manager from ETF Securities after the successful acquisition of the Canvas ETF business which completed in March 2018. During his time at ETF Securities for almost 10 years, Howie was most recently the CEO of Canvas after holding other positions including Head of Legal and Co-Head of Canvas. Prior to that, Howie trained and worked at Simmons & Simmons in London advising the hedge fund industry.

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Joseph Firth

Investment Specialist: Asset Allocation & Index

Joe is a specialist across Asset Allocation, Index & Factor-Based Investing, and so loves anything big picture or rules-based, though his desk would suggest otherwise…. As the only member of the team with a beard, this may be the reason everyone thinks he’s far older than he actually is! Since moving to London, Joe has been spreading the word that his home county of Derbyshire isn’t that bad. So far this message has fallen on deaf ears, with team members opting to holiday in other comparable destinations such as Barbados and Nicaragua.

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Luca Ramotti

ETF Analyst

Luca joined L&G ETF in February 2019 as an analyst within the ETF Investment Strategies team. He actively contributes towards the design of investment strategies and supports the ETF distribution and marketing efforts. Prior to joining LGIM, Luca worked as an ETF research analyst at Société Générale and Lyxor ETF, and within the Index Strategy team at Standard and Poor’s Dow Jones Indices. He holds an MSc in Management jointly awarded by ESCP Europe and City University of London.

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Peter Finn

Co-Head of ETF Portfolio Management & Operations

Peter joined the business in 2017 as a portfolio manager and his role has broadened in scope to lead the investment team as co-head with Sven Christen in January 2019. He is responsible for all portfolio management and operational aspects of the ETF platform. He obtained his CF30 FCA approval in 2013. Peter holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce, from University College Dublin. He completed his MSc in investment management at Cass Business School, where he graduated with distinction.

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Rahul Bhushan

Senior ETF Product Specialist

Rahul is a Senior ETF Product Specialist in LGIM’s ETF team. He joined LGIM in March 2018 from ETF Securities where he held the title of Director – Product Specialist (an ‘open-architecture’, European UCITS ETF platform). Rahul joined ETF Securities in 2016. Prior to that, Rahul worked as a Director of Structured Products at Portman Associates for three years and at Nomura as an Associate Director in Equity Derivatives/Systematic Strategies for three years. Rahul graduated from IE Business School and holds a Master in Finance. Rahul is fluent in Swedish, French and Hindi, and conversational in Spanish.

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Russell Jones

Fund Manager, Index Funds

Russell is a Fund Manager within the Index Equities team where he is responsible for managing a number of global equity portfolios. He is a CFA charterholder and has an honours degree from the University of Birmingham. In his formative years Russell spent too much time pursuing a life in sport. However, after shattered football dreams and false cricket hopes he settled on his other passion in life; index fund management

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Wei Yang

Index Specialist and Index Strategist

Wei is the Index Investment Specialist working on index research and development and on creating index solutions for investors. Wei has a CV that ranges across several different areas of the financial markets, including roles in Investment Advisory at Barclays Wealth and Solution Consulting at Moody’s Analytics. Outside work, he is developing a keen interest in African adventures and is a devoted Bon Jovi fan.

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