Cathie Wood, founder and chief executive officer of American investment management company, Ark Invest, has reportedly decided to relinquish her roles and responsibilities as portfolio manager of two important funds in the financial company.
ARK Investment Management LLC based in St Petersburg, Florida was founded by Cathie Wood in 2014 as a private asset management company.
The latest regulatory filings of the investment company suggest that Cathie Wood has decided to leave the role as portfolio manager of two index funds, ARK 3D Printing ETF (PRNT) and ARK Israel Innovative Technology ETF (IZRL). Both ARK 3D Printing ETF and ARK Israel Innovative Technology ETF are very significant indexes in the profile of Ark Invest.
ARK 3D Printing ETF which is an investment fund focused on 3D printing technology and development currently have a net value of more than 196 million dollars. ARK Israel which focuses on price movements of Israeli companies has total assets worth more than 115 million dollars.
Stock Market analysts believe that the recent move by Cathie Wood to relinquish her role as portfolio manager of two major funds at Ark Invest is part of succession plans which are reportedly happening within the asset management company. A few months ago Sam Korus and Nicholas Grous, an analyst at Ark Invest were promoted to associate portfolio managers of all nine exchange-traded funds under Ark Invest.
Sam Korus who was an analyst at the company since 2015 also got the role of Director of Research Autonomous Technology & Robotics. Nicholas Grous joined Ark Invest as an analyst in 2018.
Before the appointment of Sam Korus and Nicholas Grous, all the nine funds exchange-traded funds of Ark Invest were managed by Cathie Wood alone.
News reports state that William Scherer who has been working as a trading manager in Ark Invest since 2015 will take over the role of Cathie Wood in handling the investment of ARK 3D Printing ETF (PRNT) and ARK Israel Innovative Technology ETF (IZRL). William Scherer who completed a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Bryant University also has a master’s in business administration from Zicklin School of Business.
Robby Greengold of Morninsgtart had earlier said that Ark Invest is facing a talent scarcity as several analysts who had experience left the firm. The inability of the asset management firm to retain talent is a very serious issue.
Ark Invest has also been facing immense criticism from the market for not having any clear succession plans. Long-reaching powers and responsibilities of Cathie Wood in the company had also been under the scanner. Stock market analysts had multiple times pointed out the inability of Cathie Wood to personally manage all funds and investments of Ark Invest.
