Van Eck Associates' Derek Van Eck Dies Unexpectedly

Derek van Eck, a principal and chief investment officer at mutual-fund firm Van Eck Associates Corp., died unexpectedly last night. He was 46, and the cause of death wasn’t disclosed.


A short announcement appeared on the Van Eck Associates Corp. Web site on Thursday. More details were released by the company later in the day.


Van Eck managed the $3.3 billion Van Eck Global Hard Assets Fund, the New York-based firm said today in a statement. He will be succeeded by Shawn Reynolds and Charles Cameron as co- managers. Van Eck had a “health condition” that was “neurological in nature,” according to an Aug. 17 note on a cached page on the company’s website.


Reynolds, who joined Van Eck in 2005, heads the company’s energy-investment group. Cameron, who has been with Van Eck for more than 15 years, is the firm’s director of trading.


The company, which was founded in 1955 by John van Eck, Derek’s father, managed $20 billion as of Dec. 31, according to its website. 

Marketed under the Market Vectors brand, some of Van Eck’s most popular ETFs include the Gold Miners ETF (GDX), the Russia ETF (RSX) and the Agribusiness ETF (MOO).



Derek van Eck joined in 1993. Chris Sullivan, a spokesman for the firm, declined to comment. Derek’s brother Jan, Reynolds and Cameron didn’t return messages.


Van Eck graduated from Williams College with a Bachelor in Economics in 1986, and earned a Master of Business Administration at the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in 1993. He is survived by his wife, Deborah, and his children, Willem and Kathryn, according to the statement. He lived in New York City and Sharon, Connecticut.