Brian Ovaert has been appointed as country manager for Hong Kong. In this role, the 21-year veteran of the bank will oversee an expanded Hong Kong office and Northern Trust sales and relationship teams delivering global custody, fund administration, investment operations outsourcing and asset management solutions for institutional clients in the region.
Ovaert comes to the Hong Kong office from Bangalore, India, where he was CEO of Northern Operating Services, which employs more than 3,000 people performing back- and middle-office investment services for Northern Trust clients.
In addition to his role as CEO of Northern Operating Services, Ovaert has been Asia-Pacific regional head of Operations & Technology (O&T) for Northern Trust since 2012.
He will keep his O&T role, overseeing teams in Singapore, Hong Kong and Melbourne as well as Bangalore.
Northern Trust opened its Hong Kong office in 1995 and moved to larger quarters on the 19th floor of Two Pacific Place, 88 Queensway in 2012 to accommodate the growing staff.
Significant recent additions to the Hong Kong staff include Bradley Blackwell, sales and relationship management for securities lending clients in APAC. Prior to this role, Bradley was a securities lending relationship manager in our Chicago office and responsible for all North American large corporate relationships.
Elmen Lo, relationship management for asset servicing clients in the North Asia region. Prior to joining Northern Trust, she worked in sales and relationship management for over 10 years at J.P. Morgan in Hong Kong.
In recent years, Northern Trust added capabilities in Hong Kong for global equity index portfolio management and equity trading as well as Global Fund Services, including hedge fund services and investment operations outsourcing.
In 2013, Northern Trust expanded its fund administration and custody services to support locally domiciled Hong Kong funds, including exchange-traded funds, as well as other regional investment funds.
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