Strategy to stay intact under new Northern Trust head

Chicago-based asset management and servicing group Northern Trust has promoted William Mak to Asia-Pacific head to succeed Teresa Parker, who is returning to the US after four-and-a-half years in the region.

Parker will in June take up a strategic role as adviser to corporate and institutional services president Steven Fradkin at the firm’s Chicago headquarters. Mak says the group's strategy will not change under his remit.

He was previously country manager for Singapore, and Northern Trust plans to announce a replacement in due course. His transition to the new role will be complete by the end of June, when he will oversee some 3,600 Northern Trust employees in seven offices across the region.

The firm has over the past two years been expanding in the region, including establishing presences in Malaysia and the Philippines.

“We have either enhanced, expanded or opened new offices in tandem with the growth of our business,” says Mak. “In line with our global strategy for growth, we continue to review our locations across Asia Pacific.”

In April it said it was extending its services in China under Shanghai’s pilot qualified domestic land partner (QDLP) scheme, which is intended to facilitate cross-border hedge fund business.

Meanwhile, the firm opened a representative office in Malaysia in February, led by Ariani Rustam, who joined the from Bank Negara Malaysia, and will officially open a new operations hub in Manila in third quarter.

Mak joined the firm in July 2010, in the then newly created position of country manager for Singapore and head of Southeast Asia, reporting to Parker, who transferred to Singapore in October 2009 as Asia-Pacific CEO.

Before the move, Mak was managing director for Southeast Asia at Bank of New York Mellon Asset Management in Singapore. Prior to that, he had been general manager at ABN Amro/Mellon Asia Global Securities and managing director of the financial institutions group for Southeast Asia at BNP Paribas.

He began his career at the Monetary Authority of Singapore in the monetary and reserve management division, where he spent 16 years.