Paul Kim, former managing director of ETF strategy at Principal Global Investors [profile], recently left and co-founded New York City-based Simplify ETFs [profile], where he serves as CEO. Kim co-founded the startup along with David Berns, who serves as CIO at Simplify ETFs. The two "crossed paths when [they] worked together on ETF models, when [Berns] was at Nasdaq," Kim tells MFWire.

Paul Kim Simplify ETFs CEO, Co-Founder

A spokesperson for Principal did not immediately return a call for comment.

"There is a big opportunity taking advantage of the needs of the ETF world, and in the past years, it has been starting to fundamentally change," Kim says.

"In the fixed income market, it is becoming much more challenging to rely on your natural balance in your portfolios," Kim adds, "So, with my co-founder I wanted to start a company that helps address the biggest pain points for advisors, which is how do you diversify your portfolio and focus on your risks."

"Simplify ETFs is a startup focused on providing new tools to investors; we are going to be hyper focused on advisors inside the RIA channel," Kim continues. "We will be based in New York and serving U.S. advisors, but we believe that the idea of the innovation that we are bringing will be much more universal," Kim explains to MFWire.

Kim joined Principal five years ago, after more than five years with Pimco. Prior to that he worked with [x+1], 121 media, WhenU.com, Willis Stein, and Lazard. He is an alumnus of UPenn's Wharton School and of Dartmouth.

Berns, founder of Portfolio Designer, previously worked with Nasdaq, DMB Trading, and Athena Capital Advisors. He is an alumnus of both MIT and of Tufts. 

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