Aberdeen Investments has appointed Caroline Hertrich as head of UK and EMEA exchange-traded fund strategy, a role announced on September 21. The hire is part of a push by the Scottish asset manager to grow its ETF platform in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, building on a US business that holds about $21 billion in assets and roughly doubled in size during 2025. Exchange-traded funds have been one of the fastest-growing corners of the industry.
Hertrich brings more than 15 years of experience in exchange-traded funds and index investing across Europe and the United States. She joins from Bloomberg, where she led index sales to buy-side clients in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Earlier in her career she held senior positions at FTSE Russell and at BlackRock, where she worked on ETF product strategy and distribution across European markets, giving her a broad view of how the products are built and sold.
She will work with teams across investments, product, distribution and marketing, and will report into the ETF business run by Steven Dunn, the firm’s global head of exchange-traded funds. Aberdeen has identified ETFs as an area of growth as investors move money into low-cost, flexible products, including a newer wave of actively managed funds sold in the ETF format that aim to beat a benchmark rather than track it. The format has grown popular with both retail and professional investors in recent years.
“The European ETF market is entering an exciting phase of development, particularly within active ETFs, where investors increasingly seek differentiated investment ideas delivered through flexible structures,” Hertrich said. The comment points to the strategy behind the appointment, which centres on active products rather than the passive index funds that first drove ETF growth.
The move comes as established fund managers compete for a share of the expanding ETF market, long dominated by a handful of large American providers. For Aberdeen, formerly known as abrdn, building a credible European ETF range is part of a wider effort to steady its business after a difficult few years of outflows and restructuring, and to rebuild its brand under the Aberdeen name. The firm manages money for clients across the United Kingdom and further afield.
