As the ETF universe evolves and grows more sophisticated, fund providers are increasingly turning to the academic community to refine new rules-based or smart beta strategies.
Over the past six months, the ETF industry has hired several prominent professors, reports Rachel Evans for Bloomberg.
Mo Haghbin, head of product at OppenheimerFunds’ beta solutions business, argued that combining academic research with the experience of money managers can help produce better ETFs. The fund provider has recruited two academics from Harvard Business School and one form the London School of Economics to a new advisory board.
Campbell Harvey, who teaches at Duke, joined Research Affiliates in October as a partner and senior adviser.
Joel Shulman, who teaches entrepreneurship at Babson College outside Boston, has started his own ETF under the EntrepreneurShares brand, which recently launched the Entrepreneur 30 Fund (NYSEArca: ENTR).