Haworth College of Business Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award

Laura V. Morrison, B.B.A.’88

Independent Trustee, World Funds Trust, ETF Opportunities Trust, Precidian ETF Trust

Formerly, as Chief Revenue Officer at Direxion, a leading provider of leveraged, inverse, and thematic exchange-traded funds (ETF) and mutual funds, Laura Morrison set the strategy and managed the product development, sales distribution and marketing teams. She was responsible for increasing assets under management from $19 billion to $33 billion. She currently serves as independent trustee on three boards, the World Funds Trust, ETF Opportunities Trust and Precidian ETF Trust, which represent $10 billion in assets supporting 21 different investment advisors, seven unaffiliated subadvisors for 30 listed exchange traded funds and 24 mutual funds.

Previously, Morrison increased profitability and stakeholder engagement across an asset management firm and global stock exchanges, including iconic organizations such as NYSE, Euronext and Cboe. She guided the largest business model pivot in market history with the buildout of the exchange-traded fund ecosystem, launching new products that opened unprecedented value in the public markets. 

She also ran an upstart global listings business at Better Alternative Trading Systems (BATS). During her tenure, BATS executed its public offering and merged with Cboe Global Markets, growing to $14 billion in public market capitalization and increasing new ETF listings from 31 to over 550.

Morrison is also proud of her 22 years at the New York Stock Exchange starting as a clerk on the trading floor and working her way up within the NYSE on the corporate listings team, member firm relationship management team and building the Exchange Traded Funds Listings business.

In 2023, Morrison was awarded the Pensions and Investments Most Influential Women in Institutional Investing award. She serves as the chairperson of the board and director for the non-profit organization Women in ETFs.