PANEL: Actively-Managed ETFs Continue to Dominate New Issuance

Mariana is an investment executive and director with over 30 years of expertise in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and closed-end funds (CEFs). She specializes in the development of comprehensive investment evaluation frameworks, innovative risk management strategies, and navigating complex investment fund landscapes. She has established industry-recognized methodologies for fund due diligence and performance analysis and excels at fostering collaborative relationships across diverse stakeholder groups.

Most recently, Mariana served as a Managing Director in Global Manager Research at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute. She led the Passive Products and Closed-end Fund working groups, where she developed sophisticated due diligence frameworks, directed fund manager due diligence assessments, and built strategic risk management approaches designed to improve the likelihood of outperformance. Her work broadly enhanced fund reporting and transparency, and she improved fund risk mitigation outcomes by establishing protocols for evaluating key risk factors including tracking difference, AUM levels, valuation metrics, and distribution sustainability. She has presented actionable insights to over 10,000 financial advisors and presented to CEF boards on topics including valuation trends, market impact, investor demand, activism, and trading dynamics. She authored industry-recognized research reports on complex investment themes.

Mariana has experiences serving on nonprofits boards including the Friends of Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, an aquatic garden of the National Park Service, and the National Cathedral School, an independent school for girls.

Mariana graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Science and Engineering. She is also a regular speaker at industry conferences including Capital Link, Inside ETFs, and the ETF Global Forum and frequently quoted in financial media as an ETF and CEF expert.