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ETF Securities Ltd (ETFS), the global pioneer in Exchange Traded Commodities (ETCs), has expanded its sales team with the key appointments of Emil Petersen to be Head of Nordic Sales and Neil Jaimeson to be Senior Sales representative for the UK & Ireland. These appointments are a direct response to the growth in investor demand for ETCs.
Emil Petersen was previously regional Sales Director responsible for EMEA and Nordics for the FTSE Group, one of the world's leading index providers to the investment community. Recent successes include the launch of AP2's (Swedish Pension Fund) $2.5 billion "Fundamental Fund," the XACT Fonder Eurozone, and Swedish ETFs. Emil was the top sales person ranked by sales revenue achieved in 2006 and 2007.
Prior to joining FTSE, Emil worked as a Sales Director for financial industry analyst firm TowerGroup (a MasterCard company) where Emil helped build up their European team and presence. He has a total of 15 years sales experience in companies including J. Walter Thompson, Gartner Group, and Reuters Group. In addition, Emil has been instrumental in several start-ups around the world including TigerEx, Asia Pacific's first ECN for electronic cross-border equities dealing.
Emil received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Arizona State University and Tulane University. In addition, he holds several professional certifications including Securities and Futures Authority Registered Securities Representative and Investment Management Certificate in the United Kingdom and Annuities and Life Insurance in the United States.
Neil Jaimeson was previously Director of Marketing and Business Development at Selftrade, one of the UK's largest execution-only stockbrokers. He was part of the management team that launched Comdirect in the UK in 2000, heading marketing and business development prior to its institutional buy-out in 2004 and subsequent sale to Boursorama, Selftrade's parent, in 2005.
Neil has a total of 25 years experience which includes analyst and programme manager roles at the OECD, International Energy Agency, Sheppard's and Chatham House. He has worked extensively on energy policy, including as a participant in the European Energy Charter negotiations in 1992-93 while working in the Federal Ministry of Economics in Germany.
Neil holds a B.A. from the University of Reading and a M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. He is also a Sloan Fellow from London Business School.
ETF Securities is continuing to expand its sales teams to meet the growing demand generated from its listings across Europe. Weekly ETC trading volumes have also exploded to over $600 million, up over 150% since December. Of this, the Agriculture ETC, ETFS Agriculture has gathered $1bn in AUM, ETFS Softs $170m, ETFS Grains $160m and ETFS Cotton $130m. For the precious metals, ETFS Physical Gold has gathered $800m AUM, ETFS Physical Platinum $680m, ETFS Physical Silver $170m and ETFS Physical Palladium $130m. In addition to market conditions which are supportive for precious metals and commodities, the increase in trading volumes is also a result of multiple European listings complemented with the largest number of Authorised Participants and market makers of any ETC or ETF. Last week, ETF Securities saw assets under management reach over $5.1bn, the assets having risen by 100% from $2.5bn since January 1st 2008.
Commenting on the further growth of the team, Graham Tuckwell, Chairman of ETF Securities, said:
"Gathering $5bn in assets in such a short time is simply staggering. It clearly shows that ETF Securities has developed the right products at the right time. We are very excited by this growth and given we have just listed 66 new short and leveraged ETCs we think that this growth should continue.
"Emil Petersen and Neil Jamieson are both key hires for ETF Securities. They both bring a wealth of sales and marketing and commodities experience to the teams. These hires show our commitment to the Nordic, UK & Irish markets where we have significant take up of ETCs across all investor classes."
