James Thomas has rejoined State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) after departing ARK Invest Europe last December, ETF Stream can reveal

Based in Dubai and reporting to Emmanuel Laurina, head of Middle East, Africa and official institutions for SSGA, Thomas will be focused on building out the firm’s distribution efforts in the Middle East and Africa.

Thomas previously spent six years covering UK wealth and MPS distribution for SSGA before joining thematic specialist Rize ETF in January 2022.

He operated as head of European sales for ARK Invest Europe after it acquired Rize from AssetCo in September 2023.

Thomas’s departure coincided with a reshuffle in ARK’s European sales team, with the firm appointing Carl Henrik Hagerup as head of Northern European sales and promoting Paul Spells to head of UK sales.

Last April, Cathie Wood’s ETF brand launched three of its popular US-listed active thematic strategies – covering innovation, genomics and artificial intelligence – in UCITS format. The three ETFs have amassed approximately $77m assets under management (AUM) to-date.