Valerie Urbain has started her premiership as CEO of Euroclear with aplomb, after being voted as Global Custodian’s Industry Person of the Year by her peers at the Leaders in Custody awards last night.
Urbain prevailed over three other nominees – BNP Paribas’ Philippe Benoit, Digital Asset’s Yuval Rooz, and State Street’s Mostapha Tahiri – who had been shortlisted for the honour recognising individuals who have gone above and beyond in their role over the past 12 months.
With extensive financial services experience on her side, Urbain recently assumed the role of CEO of Euroclear Group – succeeding Lieve Mostrey who had held the position since 2017.
Urbain began her career at Euroclear in 1992, and has worked her way up through a number of positions and departments within the organisation. Between 2009 and 2014, she served as CEO of the three ESES CSDs in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, before assuming the role of CEO of Euroclear Bank in 2015 – responsible for the firm’s operations, commercial, client service, banking and network management divisions worldwide.
Before becoming CEO of Euroclear Group, Urbain was chief business officer, responsible for the commercial and product development divisions of the business.
In the role, Urbain has overseen a period of sustained growth for the infrastructure provider. In the past year, there has been considerable momentum within the group’s Funds business, with significant client wins including Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat Luxembourg (Spuerkeess) and Singapore-headquartered DBS Bank.
Euroclear also launched a new service for private market funds in October, complementing its existing money market, mutual and alternative fund offerings based on the Goji technology platform, while in March this year the firm announced it would be acquiring a stake in blockchain-based funds platform IZNES.
“I would like to thank Global Custodian for this prestigious award,” said Urbain. “This award is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and talent of the Euroclear team and serves as a symbol of our commitment of putting the client at the centre of everything we do. Thank you once again for your recognition and continued support.”
Urbain joins an illustrious list of winners of this award, taking on the mantle from JP Morgan’s global head of custody Hannah Elson, who received the honour last year.
The honour is now handed out three times a year – in London during May for custody, market infrastructure and technology, in Singapore during the same month for achievements in the Asia Pacific region, and November in New York for fund services.
Previous winners of the award have also come from BNY Mellon, Northern Trust, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Intertrust Group and Digital Asset. For a potted history of the award, the process behind it and a list of previous winners, click here.
Given the many, many thousands of senior executives across the asset servicing industry, just making the shortlist is an incredible accomplishment, so Global Custodian would like to congratulate all of this year’s nominees.