Northern Trust has continued investment into its Front Office Solutions business with two new appointments, as it looks to build on the growth the unit has seen in its three years of operations.
Jane Western – previously of Wilshire Associates, Fidelity Investments and Ameritech, among others – becomes permanent chief operating officer (COO) of Front Office Solutions after more than six months of holding the role in an interim capacity.
Meanwhile, Northern Trust has hired Deirdre Cannell from SS&C Technologies as a senior business development executive focusing on North America.
Cannell also previously worked at SimCorp and hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates.
Northern Trust’s Front Office Solutions has grown significantly since its launch in 2017, with more than $150 billion in assets tracked on its technology platform and a team of more than 60 in place.
“Front Office Solutions caters to the evolving needs of asset owners and allocators across the globe, going far beyond traditional asset servicing offerings,” said Melanie Pickett, head of Front Office Solutions. “Our capability has been met with huge demand and we’ve been growing our skilled team to maximise the service that we provide to our clients. The additions of Jane and Deirdre to our team underscore our ongoing commitment to expand the breadth and depth of our offering.”
In September 2019, Global Custodian conducted a deep dive into the unit, writing the feature: The front-office start-up inside Northern Trust which told the story of Pickett’s journey in setting up Front Office Solutions – a custody-agnostic service – within the Chicago-headquartered outfit.
The service is aimed at enabling enhanced data integration, collaboration and portfolio analysis for complex asset owners such as endowments, pension funds and family offices.