A running theme throughout Daron Pearce’s 30+ year career in securities services is that he has been a leader for every company he has worked for. Even at the beginning of his career in 1987 when he worked at HD International, he helped build the operations for the asset management start-up, as well as helping to build the infrastructure needed to support the firm’s 50 clients and $3 billion of business.
He then joined JP Morgan in 1993 as head of client operations within the global custody business, where he led the development of a new start-up within the bank and secured $150 billion in client business. He then moved onto Norwich Union Investment Management as an operations director, where he relocated the operations team from Norwich to London and built an externally focused team, achieving significant operations efficiencies and deployed a new client reporting system.
He also led the restructuring of Baring Asset Management’s operations team, installing new risk processes and a real-time compliance monitoring system.
Pearce has since used his experience of building out new operations teams and installing company-wide change to become one of the industry’s most highly-regarded figures. He has held the role of CEO of EMEA asset servicing at BNY Mellon since June 2016, where is responsible for the day-to-day delivery of its services and setting the strategic direction of the business in the region.
Other senior roles during his almost 20-year spell with the bank include CEO of its investment management solutions business for EMEA and APAC, head of EMEA relationship management, head of asset servicing for UK, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa, and CEO of global financial institutions, among many others.
Pearce has led BNY Mellon’s rapid rise in Europe, winning some of the region’s largest asset management and pension fund clients. His latest focus is on building out the bank’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) capabilities, and providing support through analytics to funds that are using ESG as a buying criterion.