A 47-year-old, employee-owned mutual fund shop in the Southwest is entering the ETF business, and they've hired an ETF industry veteran to help.

Dodd Kittsley Davis Advisors Incoming Director

Dodd Kittsley recently signed on with Tuscon, Arizona-based Davis Advisors [profile] as a director, Trevor Hunnicutt of Reuters reports, after leaving Deutsche Asset Management [profile] over the summer. Kittsley had served as Deutsche's U.S. head of exchange-traded product strategy.

Davis has filed for exemptive relief to create its own series of actively-managed ETFs and has filed specifically to create at least three active ETFs: the Davis Focused US Equity ETF, the Davis Select Financial ETF, and the Davis Select World Opportunities ETF.

Chris Davis, chairman of Davis Investments, referred inquiries to a spokesman for the company, and that spokesman declined to comment on Davis entering the ETF business.

Kittsley has held key posts at several of the biggest ETF players in the business. An alumnus of both Hamilton College and the University of Houston, he previously worked at Morgan Stanley, SSgA, and BGI and BlackRock (which bought BGI). He joined Deutsche two years ago as director and head of ETF national accounts and strategy under Fiona Bassett, managing director and Deutsche's head of passive asset management in the Americas. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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