Global Custodian is pleased to announce the four nominees shortlisted for the annual Industry Person of the Year 2026 award, recognising individuals who have gone above and beyond in their role over the past 12 months, impacting both their own organisation and the wider sector. 
After months of reducing a significant amount of candidates down to a longlist of 10, the decision on the final four nominees was made this week.
Criteria included work on key projects, mandate wins, organisational milestones, innovation, leadership impact, team development, advocacy, and broader contribution to the industry through participation in working groups, industry forums and collaborative initiatives.
Now in its 10th year, the award will be decided via a live vote during the Leaders in Custody Awards, taking place on 14 May at The Savoy in London.
The accolade is presented three times annually, with the London edition specifically recognising excellence across custody, market infrastructure and securities services technology.
Last year’s winner was Margaret Harwood-Jones of Standard Chartered.
Previous recipients have included senior leaders from JP Morgan, BNY, Northern Trust, Citi and Deutsche Bank, among others.
With thousands of senior executives operating across the global securities and fund services industry, reaching the final shortlist remains a significant achievement, and Global Custodian congratulates all of this year’s nominees, listed below!
Mark Austin
For more than three decades, Mark Austin has been a prominent figure in the evolution of pension servicing across the UK and Europe, helping shape how some of the region’s largest retirement schemes approach custody, investment operations and long-term strategic change. 
As pensions and insurance executive for EMEA at Northern Trust, Austin leads the firm’s strategy for pension and insurance clients across the region, overseeing relationships with many of the industry’s most significant institutional investors during a period of profound transformation in retirement markets.
Under Austin’s leadership, Northern Trust has continued to expand its presence in the UK pensions market, securing a series of landmark mandates from major institutional schemes.
These include appointments from the £11 billion South Yorkshire Pensions Authority, Lancashire County Pension Fund and the government-backed workplace pension scheme Nest. Alongside his client leadership responsibilities, Austin has also played an active role in broader industry dialogue.
He served as chair of the Defined Contribution Investment Forum in 2024, having previously held the position of vice chair in 2023. Widely respected across the industry, Austin is recognised not only for his longevity in retirement asset servicing, but also for his ability to guide clients through periods of structural change – including complex de-risking programmes, pension pooling initiatives and transitions toward in-house asset management models.
Phil Brown
Phil Brown is one of the most influential figures in Europe’s securities services landscape and his nomination this year is a testament to both his ongoing work to advancing the industry and Clearstream’s achievements over the past 12 months. 
From Clearstream’s truly innovative D7 platform to its digitisation of the Eurobond market – the ICSD has been making plenty of moves this year to future proof itself and push the industry to new heights of efficiency.
On a more global scale, Brown has driven landmark initiatives including enabling the first use of offshore Chinese government bonds for initial margin segregation, completing Clearstream’s first tri-party repo transaction in Taiwan and signing a collateral partnership with EDAA in Saudi Arabia. Another milestone saw Clearstream reach €1 trillion in collateral management outstandings for the first time, as well as 4 million digital issuances on its D7 platform.
He has also played a role in strengthening Clearstream’s technology agenda, including the rollout of AI-driven client servicing tools and sales automation built on its cloud strategy, as well as a memorandum of understanding with JASDEC to explore digital securities collaboration between Europe and Japan.
Brown is a frequent thought leader in the biggest topics facing the securities services industry and his voice has been heard across multiple global conferences and associations throughout the past 12 months. This year Brown celebrated his 13th year as a board member of ISSA.
While he has already built a highly decorated career from an awards perspective, he continues to make a significant impact both across the industry and within his own organisation.
Fiona McNally
Fiona McNally has established herself as one of the asset servicing industry’s most influential leaders, combining deep operational expertise with strategic vision and a strong commitment to industry collaboration and innovation. 
As managing director, global head of network management at BNY, McNally is responsible for defining and executing the firm’s global network strategy, leading a worldwide team of market specialists and managing key enterprise relationships across BNY’s direct and sub-custodian network.
Her role sits at the centre of the global custody ecosystem, overseeing the infrastructure and market relationships that support institutional investors operating across international markets.
Beyond her executive responsibilities, McNally is widely recognised for her active contribution to industry development and best practice initiatives. She participates in several leading industry bodies, including Irish Funds, the International Securities Services Association (ISSA) and the European Central Bank’s AMI-SeCo initiative.
She also represents BNY on multiple user committees and advisory councils. With extensive experience spanning leadership, product management, governance, regulation and operations within investment fund services, McNally has built a reputation for navigating complexity while driving operational resilience and client-focused solutions.
Her expertise has become increasingly valuable as the industry adapts to evolving regulation, market fragmentation, digital transformation and rising client expectations around efficiency and transparency.
Isabelle Delorme
Isabelle Delorme is global head of product strategy and innovation at Euroclear, where she leads the firm’s global product strategy across issuers, fund managers and government clients, with a strong focus on innovation and the evolution of post-trade infrastructure. 
She is responsible for shaping Euroclear’s product development agenda, including initiatives across digital transformation, shareholder identification services, and experimentation with emerging technologies such as central bank digital currencies.
An eventful year for the innovation team was headlined by the digitisation of the Eurobond market alongside Clearstream, which Delorme played a pivotal role in. Delorme has also been behind a number of innovation efforts, including tokenisation partnerships and collaboration with the likes of Taskize, Banque de France and Citi – to name a few.
The team launched the next generation of its EasyFocus service leveraging technologies like Microsoft Cloud and AI technology. Taken all-together, Delorme has become one of the faces of technological innovation within our industry.
Delorme joined Euroclear in 2019 as chief business officer of ESES, where she oversaw strategy, product development and commercial transformation across Belgium, France and the Netherlands. She was later appointed deputy CEO of ESES before moving into senior product leadership roles focused on issuer services and product expansion.