Ronald O’Hanley, chairman and CEO of State Street, was the recipient of Global Custodian’s Lifetime Achievement award at the 2024 Industry Leaders event in New York last night.
Now in his fifth year in the role, O’Hanley has pushed the State Street business – which spans asset servicing, global markets and asset management – to new heights under his leadership.
From accelerating the largest ETF servicing business in the market, to establishing the custodian’s flagship Alpha offering, O’Hanley has been at the forefront of evolving State Street’s asset servicing business, spurring growth while futureproofing it for years to come.
Prior to his current role, O’Hanley was president and chief operating officer of State Street, and before that, president and chief executive officer of State Street Global Advisors, the investment management arm of the Boston-based bank. He joined State Street in 2015.
He joined the custodian following his role as president of asset management & corporate services for Fidelity Investments, responsible for the firm’s asset management organisations, corporate functions and enterprise technology. He served at Fidelity from 2010 to 2014.
Prior to that, O’Hanley served as president and chief executive officer of BNY Mellon Asset Management in Boston. During this time, he also served as vice chairman of Bank of New York Mellon. Additionally, O’Hanley oversaw all of the custodian’s activities in Asia.
Prior to the 2007 merger of Bank of New York and Mellon, he was vice chairman of Mellon Financial Corporation and president and chief executive officer of Mellon Asset Management. Combined, O’Hanley served across the two organisations for 13 years from 1997 to 2010.
A large part of his early career was spent with McKinsey & Company from 1986 to 1997. He founded the Investment Management practice and was co-founder of the firm’s North American Personal Financial Services practice. Additionally, he was a member of the Property & Casualty Insurance practice.
In addition, O’Hanley now serves on the boards of Unum Corp., Beth Israel Lahey Health, ABL Space Systems, The Boston Foundation, The Ireland Funds, IYRS School of Technology and Trades, Syracuse University, WBUR, the Sustainable Markets Initiative, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He is chair of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and the Financial Services Forum.
O’Hanley follows other industry leaders who have won the award in recent years including BNY’s Todd Gibbons, JP Morgan’s Teresa Heitsenrether, Citi’s Okan Pekin, BNP Paribas’ Patrick Colle and Standard Chartered’s Margaret Harwood-Jones.