Last night was a big night for Jim Ross and his SPDR team at State Street Global Advisors (SSgA).

James Ross SSgA Executive Vice President

A record of roughly 240 fundsters and fundster allies gathered at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in New York City, for the fourth annual ETF.com Awards Dinner, co-hosted with Inside ETFs. Here's a full list of the finalists and winners of all 33 awards, as well as the methodology behind them.

Ross, executive vice president of SSgA and chairman of the global SPDR business, won the lifetime achievement award. And the SPDR SSgA Gender Diversity Index ETF (SHE) swept the five categories in which it was contending: "best new ETF," "most innovative new ETF," "best new U.S. equity ETF," "thematic ETF of the year," and the "people's choice award."

In his brief remarks, in addition to sharing many thank-yous, Ross highlighted the attention garnered by the "Fearless Girl" statute SSgA commissioned near Wall Street. And he offered a prediction that the ETF industry will reach $25 trillion in AUM by the end of 2025.

Among ETF providers, BlackRock's iShares, Deutsche Asset Management, Elkhorn, and J.P. Morgan won two awards each. Invesco PowerShares, Nuveen, Spirited Funds, USAA, Van Eck, and WisdomTree all won awards, too, and Fidelity and Vanguard tied for an award.

Podcasting advisor Barry Ritholtz gave the keynote address, talking about "organizational alpha" and the Baby Boomer retirement shift. And his firm, Ritholtz Wealth Management, even won "ETF advisor of the year."

Other winning firms included: BofA Merrill, Charles Schwab (the brokerage side), FTSE Russell, Goldman Sachs (the capital markets desk), MSCI, Newfound Research, Raymond James, S&P, and Susquehanna, and Dechert and Thompson Hine tied for an award.

After an opening cocktail reception overlooking the Hudson River, Inside ETFs president Foster Wright welcomed attendees to the three-course dinner. Inside ETFs CEO Matt Hougan and ETF.com CEO Dave Nadig gave out the awards and took pictures with attendees from the winning firms. And Hougan warned attendees that, as is traditional at this awards show, they were "still limiting acceptance speeches to zero words," with an exception for the lifetime achievement award winner, Ross. 

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