State Street appoints sales head for Benelux

State Street Global Advisors has hired Hein Kuijpers to help build the SPDR ETF brand in the Benelux region - Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

He is taking on the role of vice president and head of sales for the Benelux Intermediary Business Group. He will be based in Amsterdam and report to Eleanor Hope-Bell, head of the Northern Europe Intermediaries Business Group.

State Street already has a presence in the region, Kuijpers role will be to build on that, focusing on distribution and building client relationships, explains Hope-Bell.

"The market is an interesting one from an ETF perspective," she says, adding that there is potential for growing assets in the region.

Hope-Bell says that there are new investors coming into the ETF market but also existing investors finding new ways of using ETFs.

Kuijpers joins from Fidelity, where he was sales director. Prior to that he held various positions at ABN Amro Asset Management and Private Banking in Amsterdam.

Hope-Bell says that Kuijper has a strong track record and that "he's very passionate about SPDR ETFs; he sees ETFs as the future of asset management".