Former global head of ETFs at BMO GAM explains his new role, CIO at a $5bn Florida-based asset manager
Less than one year after exiting his role as Global Head of ETFs at BMO Global Asset Management, Kevin Gopaul has taken on a new role, in a somewhat unexpected place. The Canadian ETF leader has been named the new Chief Investment Officer at REX Financial, a boutique ETF manager based in Miami.
Gopaul spoke with WP about his new role, explaining the niches and strategies that REX offers in the US market. He outlined some of the lessons he learned in the Canadian market and how he plans to apply them South of the border. He highlighted the significance of this move in the context of his own career and offered a view as to why some Canadian advisors may want to stay tuned in to the work he’s doing now.
“My career so far has been in Canada, working for very large organizations like BMO, Scotia, Sun Life, and Barclays. For my next challenge, I was keen to focus on the US – the largest market in the world. The notion of joining a smaller company was exciting because I like to build, innovate, and move quickly,” Gopaul says. “REX really hit my radar because of their successful track record, and how quickly they were innovating and launching products. I’m a big fan of their leadership team, and humbled to be part of it.”
Gopaul explains that REX, which manages about $5 billion in assets, focuses on alternative strategies in their ETFs. Alternatives, in this case, mean specific strategic overlays rather than allocations to private assets. They offer hyper targeted strategies called “microsectors” as well as ETFs with triple leverage or triple inverse overlays or single-exposure strategies. While these are broadly non-traditional ETF strategies, they fall into that realm of offering more institutional strategies to retail investors.
Because his work will largely be in the development, execution, and distribution of ETF strategies, Gopaul doesn’t see a significant hurdle emerging from this move to the US market. The same skills he used in Canadian organizations or for international firms in Canada can largely be applied here. He will lean on his investment knowledge, leadership skills, and ability to connect with clients, and won’t have to be deep in the weeds of US regulatory minutiae in this new role.
That is not to say Gopaul won’t have to learn more about US regulation. He notes that he’ll have to learn the US product development cycle, regulatory environment, and competitive landscape very quickly to thrive in this role. His foremost challenge, though, is staffing. REX, he says, currently employs less than 20 people. Meeting their ambitions will require staffing up. Decisions around finding the right talent, Gopaul says, will be key to his success in this role.
Despite the challenges, or perhaps because of them, Gopaul says he is excited to take on the role. He claims to be most excited to lead new client interactions, meet new clients, and establish new relationships in a new jurisdiction. He hopes to apply some of the lessons learned in his Canadian career stateside now.
Chief among those lessons is a keen ear for client needs. Gopaul says that in his career so far he learned never to assume anything about his clients, he plans to maintain that approach. Gopaul says he will focus on educational efforts, service, and outreach in his client interactions.
Taking a wider view, for all the ways the Canadian ETF industry emulates US innovations Gopaul believes Canada can teach the US market something too. He’s quick to point out that the first ETF was launched in Canada, as well as the first fixed income ETF and the first bitcoin ETF. Canada’s innovation, Gopaul says, has been in developing a ‘softer touch’ building relationships with regulators and stakeholders over time that result in big first steps. It’s an element of the Canadian industry he’d like to bring into his US work.
“Because it’s so competitive in the US, there’s often a rush to be the first mover, but I think the firms that succeed take time to understand client needs, and focus on product education,” Gopaul says. “They demonstrate how a product benefits the end user, while ensuring that the rest of the ETF ecosystem (market makers, index providers, portfolio managers, etc.) is aligned to deliver the best client experience. I think that approach can work well anywhere in the world.”
