Manuela Sperandeo, Managing Director, is EMEA Head of Smart Beta, Sustainable and Thematic ETFs for EII, responsible for driving the strategy for these product segments across product development, distribution and thought leadership. Prior to that, she was a member of the iShares Product Innovation team where she was responsible for Fixed Income product research. Manuela joined Blackrock in April 2014 from Barclays, where she spent 6 years working across several roles in the Investment Bank and the Wealth and Investment Management divisions. Most recently she was a Director at Barclays Capital Fund Solutions, an asset management business specializing in absolute return and alternative indexation strategies. Prior to that, she was a member of the Product Development team focusing on investment products for Barclays private and retail clients. Prior to Barclays she worked as an investment analyst at Alpstar, a credit hedge fund and as a Structured Derivatives Sales at Credit Suisse. Manuela has been a founding board member of the European chapter of Women in ETFs. 

Manuela earned an Economics Degree, with distinction, from Bocconi University in Milan and an MBA from Harvard Business School.