Northern Trust has appointed Brian Ovaert as country manager for Hong Kong, overseeing the expansion of the firm’s Hong Kong office as well as its sales and relationship teams there.
Ovaert, who has been with Northern Trust for 21 years, previously was CEO of Northern Operating Services, the firm’s Bangalore-based business where it has 3,000 employees performing back- and middle-office investment services for clients.
“Hong Kong is an important office for Northern Trust, as one of our first international locations now providing a broad scope of asset management and asset servicing solutions to clients ranging from government entities to start-up hedge funds,” says Teresa A. Parker, CEO of the Asia-Pacific region for Northern Trust. “Brian Ovaert has a strong background in client relations and deep experience in operations, technology and risk management that will benefit our clients doing business in Hong Kong and the region.”
In addition to being CEO of Northern Operating Services, since last year Ovaert has been Asia-Pacific regional head of Operations & Technology (O&T) for the firm, a role he will retain as he takes on the new position. In that role, he oversees teams in Singapore, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Bangalore.
Before his time in India, Ovaert held executive roles in London and Chicago and at one point was worldwide head of fund administration.
“Northern Trust is committed to Hong Kong as a center of investment and financial services in Asia, and I am eager to work with our diverse and growing client base here,” Ovaert says. “In a challenging regulatory and financial environment, we believe our superior client service and integrated global technology and operations architecture can empower clients to capture investment opportunities and reach their business goals in an efficient and effective manner.”
Northern Trust has also appointed Bradley Blackwell, sales and relationship management for securities lending clients in APAC, and Elmen Lo, relationship management for asset servicing clients in the North Asia region, both based in Hong Kong.
Northern Trust’s Hong Kong office, opened in 1995, offers global custody, fund administration, investment operations outsourcing and asset management solutions for institutional clients in the region.