Scott Burns is director of Morningstar's global f und research team responsible for coverage of managed products including mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In this role, he leads Morningstar's active, passive, alternative, and fund-of-funds investment research as well as Morningstar's Markets group. Prior to assuming his current role in 2013, he was director of fund research for North America.

Burns has more than 15 years of experience in securities analysis. Prior to joining the ETF team, Burns was an associate director for the equity research staff, where he was in charge of training and methodology development. In his time on the equity research team, Burns was also as a senior equity analyst and team leader, covering the steel and aluminum industries.

Before joining Morningstar in 2004, he spent a year teaching corporate finance and cash-flow modeling for Bank One. Prior to that, Burns spent four years as an analyst and later as an associate with the Banc of America Securities Leveraged Finance group.

Burns holds a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Illinois and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In July 2009, Burns was named to ETF Database's ETF Hall of Fame.