BNY Mellon continues recruitment drive with senior alternatives hires

BNY Mellon has made two senior appointments to its alternative investment services (AIS) business, as it continues to focus on building out its position in the alternatives space.

Jamie Gleeson has been appointed as EMEA head of relationship management for AIS while Edwin Parker has joined as director of business development for EMEA private equity, real estate and debt.

Gleeson joins BNY Mellon following a three and a half year stint in the same role at State Street. In his new role Gleeson, who will report to global head of relationship management Jim Whittaker, will be responsible for “building deeper relationships” in the alternatives space.

“The impact of new, disruptive technologies and a wave of incoming regulatory requirements presents challenges – but, crucially, also many opportunities for alternative investment managers – and a large part of my role will be working with our clients to help them navigate this new landscape,” said Gleeson.

Parker was formerly head of AIS sales for Northern Trust and previously spent over a decade in a variety of roles at SS&C Technologies.

“It is exciting to join BNY Mellon at a time when it is positioning itself actively to be the strategic asset servicing partner of choice for investment firms in this space,” said Parker.

“We expect to see inflows not only into hedge funds and private equity as institutions seek uncorrelated returns but also into real estate as they search for yield with the added security of real assets.”

According to BNY Mellon, both appointments are part of an on-going strategy to build its AIS capability. In May it appointed Chandresh Iyer, the custodian’s previous global head of middle-office solutions group, as global CEO of the AIS division.

Peter Salvage was also appointed to the newly created role of global head for hedge fund services the following month.

BNY Mellon has sought to significant invest in the real estate and private equity fund services business, after it completed the real estate fund administration outsourcing deal with Deutsche Asset Management in 2015.

Earlier this year, it announced it will provide fund administration services for the US real estate funds of PGIM Real Estate, representing around $33 billion in net assets under management.

Speaking on the custodian’s first quarter earnings call Brian Shea, CEO of Investment Services, said he expects more outsourcing deals from alternative managers as a result of new pressures on buy-side business models.