Fund services tech provider Milestone Group has snapped up a securities services veteran with experience at the likes of RBC, JP Morgan and BNP Paribas as its new managing director for Asia–Pacific (APAC).
Marian Azer joins Milestone Group from RBC Investor & Treasury Services (RBC I&TS), where she was previously head of APAC and global middle-office product and COO, global client coverage for Australia.
Azer left RBC I&TS after the bank recently sold its Australian custody business to Citi.
Before her three years at RBC, Azer spent five and a half years at JP Morgan in roles including head of product, investor services for Australia and New Zealand. She also worked for Mercer and BNP Paribas Securities Services.
Reporting to London–based CEO Paul Roberts, Marian will have overall responsibility for market engagement, client success and go-to-market strategy across APAC, with particular emphasis on the Australian and New Zealand markets.
“We’ve created this role as a key element of our refreshed global strategy, which puts additional weight and attention on the APAC markets, with Australia and New Zealand being a focus,” said Roberts.
“As an Australian-headquartered company, Milestone Group has put significant energy into becoming a recognised global player, innovator and category leader in key disciplines. With this accomplished, Marian’s background and commitment to innovation is ideally suited to our agenda, making it an exciting time to lead our APAC and Australian business as we begin this chapter of sharing international capabilities and solutions with the market for the benefit of our clients and their investors.”
Milestone Group provides software solutions to the funds through an automation platform that addresses industry issues such as regulatory change, NAV oversight and rules–based robotic process automation (RPA).
Some of its clients include Jupiter, Generali and most recently, BNY Mellon.
“I have watched Milestone Group grow and evolve over the years and have always been impressed by the way it thinks differently to solve the challenges our industry faces,” said Azer.
“I see a real opportunity to add value at a time asset owners, managers and servicers are seeking fresh ideas and approaches and I am personally delighted to be leading that effort.”