A 16-year-old firm in Gotham, via its asset management arm, is entering the ETF business.

Patricia Silvia Lizarraga Hypatia Capital Management LLC Founder, Managing Member

Today, Patricia Lizarraga, founder and managing partner of Hypatia Capital Management LLC [profile], unveils the launch of the Hypatia Women CEO ETF (WCEO on the NYSE). The new fund's inception date was yesterday, and it comes with an expense ratio of 85 basis points.

Hypatia CM is a subsidiary of Hypatia Capital Group LLC (HCG), which Lizarraga launched in 2007 and which has a CEO-level female executive network with more than 1,000 business leaders. Hypatia CM, which launched in 2015, serves as WCEO's investment advisor, and Vident Investment Advisory, LLC serves as subadvisor. The new fund is a series of Ultimus Fund Solutions, LLC's Two Roads Shared Trust.

Lizarraga serves as PM for WCEO. The actively managed fund is expected to primarily invest in components of the Hypatia Women CEO Index (HWCEO, which launched in 2021). HCG is the index creator and sponsor, while Wilshire Advisors LLC is the index calculation agent.

Lizarraga puts the launch of WCEO in the context of investor interest in "research that highlights the performance of female leadership."

"We are excited to launch the Hypatia Women CEO ETF to offer investors the chance to potentially diversify their portfolio from a gender perspective, invest their values, and use their investment dollars to create impact," Lizarraga states.

Larie Lydick, vice president of ETF product at Ultimus, lauds WCEO as a "new innovative ETF which invests in large women-led companies." And Amrita Nandakumar, president of Vident, praises the new fund as a "first-of-its-kind strategy that seeks to provide exposure to female CEOs."

Lydick notes that Hypatia CM also tapped into the Ultimus Distribution Advantage, which is led by Kevin Guerette, to understand the new fund's "distribution landscape."

WCEO's other service providers include: Blank Rome LLP as counsel; Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (BBH) as custodian and transfer agent; Cohen & Company as independent accounting firm; Northern Lights Distributors, LLC, an Ultimus affiliate, as distributor; and Ultimus itself as administrator and fund accountant. 

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