A former Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) chief is back, along with another ex-DFA bigwig, and together they're launching a new unit for another heartland mutual fund firm.

Eduardo A. Repetto Avantis Investors Chief Investment Officer

Yesterday, Jonathan Thomas, CEO of Kansas City-based American Century [profile], confirmed that Eduardo Repetto and Pat Keating have joined up to run American Century's new Avantis Investors arm. Repetto will serve as Avantis' chief investment officer, while Keating will serve as its chief operating officer.

Citywire, FA, the Kansas City Business Journal, and RIABiz all picked up on the news.

Avantis will offer five equity strategies in ETF, mutual fund, and separate account forms. They will be factor-based, but not indexed.

"Eduardo and Patrick bring new skills and capabilities that will benefit American Century clients around the world," Thomas states. "They are proven leaders who have delivered incredible growth and success by creating, honing and managing strategies informed by academic research and sound financial theories. We plan to leverage their tremendous knowledge and expertise to build unique systematic investment processes at Avantis Investors that we believe will form a solid basis for long-term asset allocation solutions."

"Our experience has shown us that investors are looking for reliable, diversified strategies that can add value over indexes and are cost-effective. That's what we plan to build."

Repetto is a rocket scientist by training and an alumnus of the California Institute of Technology, Brown, and the Universidad de Buenos Aires. He spent 17 years at DFA, rising to co-CEO in 2010. He left DFA in 2017.

Keating is an alumnus of the University of Winnipeg. He spent more than 14 years at DFA, rising to COO. Prior to that he led Assante Capital Management. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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