Caroline Butler, global head of custody at BNY Mellon has won Global Custodian’s Industry Person of the Year award, after around 5,000 votes were cast by securities services professionals around the world.
Now in its fourth year, the Industry Person of the Year award honours those who have gone above and beyond in their role over the past 12 months, making a difference both within their organisation and the wider securities services industry.
Butler joined BNY Mellon – almost a year ago to the day – in one of the biggest custody people move stories of 2020 and has wasted no time in making her mark in the pivotal role.
Helping launch BNY Mellon’s new digital assets unit dedicated to building the industry’s first integrated multi-asset digital custody and administration platform, and partnerships with Financial Recovery Technologies (FRT) and Saphyre have been some of her standout accomplishments. Butler also assumed a role on the board of the International Securities Services Association (ISSA) as BNY Mellon’s representative.
As part of a team led by Roman Regelman – a previous nominee and noted innovator in the custody space – Butler has applied her experience in leading product strategy and working with key stakeholders across asset servicing, as BNY Mellon continues to transform its global custody business with a focus on digitalisation, new markets, and modernised custody platforms.
“I’m personally very humbled by this, and it’s a reflection of the stellar team we have here at BNY Mellon and the efforts that they have been putting in over the year and years prior,” said Butler in an interview with Global Custodian. “To say there is energy in the camp would be a huge understatement.
“Just reflecting back on the year…we’ve taken on so many big risks in the company, really braving a lot of innovation and I’m hoping people realise that’s a huge culture shift for us. And also, being there for our clients during a time when everything is uncertain is a challenge, but a challenge we’ve risen too. We partner with our clients a lot and they give us very good feedback on the trust that they have that we will be there for them when times are a little rocky. So a huge personal year, a huge year for the company in parallel.”
Butler finished atop the vote, edging out fellow nominees Donna Milrod, executive vice president and head of global client management division, State Street; Sudhir Nair, global head of Aladdin, BlackRock Solutions; and Naveen TV, managing director, product development in securities services, JP Morgan.
Given the many, many thousands of senior executives across the securities services industry, just making the shortlist is an incredible accomplishment, so Global Custodian would like to congratulate all of this year’s nominees.
The announcement caps off Leaders in Custody Week 2021, where Global Custodian honoured the outstanding achievements of securities services providers, from sub-custody to ETF administration.
Butler becomes the first BNY Mellon representative to win the Industry Person of the Year award, with previous recipients from Northern Trust, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Intertrust Group and Digital Asset.