Global Custodian Hedge Fund Annual 2018 | Page 102
[ G C
L E G E N D
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J O A N
K E H O E ]
Legends
From the ground up
Joan Kehoe, global head of alternative investment services at JP Morgan, has made a
career on building businesses from the ground up. From founding independent fund
administrator Quintillion, Kehoe speaks to GC on her experiences of running a start-
up, and how she uses those lessons running the fund admin arm at a global bank.
GC: What moments stand out as personal
highlights during your career?
Joan Kehoe: I have been working in the
industry since 1984, mostly in Dublin,
and I’ve been lucky enough to have many
personal highlights. Having been one of
the first employees of PFPC from 1993,
my team helped it to grow its assets under
administration to $120 billion. Then in
2006 we set up Quintillion and grew that
to $20 billion, which was then sold off to
US Bancorp as we felt we needed to be a
depository to continue the business. From
my whole experience, most of my time has
been shaping new business, and that has
been a real highlight of my career.
I’ve had fabulous opportunities to grow
businesses from the ground up. The most
important part is to have the right people
around you. I am proud to have had many
of these people work with me on more
than one occasion. Every leader should be
happy to nurture talent and see careers
developing. I see so many businesses get attached to a
particular legacy technology, but you have
got to open your horizon to these new
innovations as they evolve.
GC: How have these experiences shaped
your industry outlook?
JK: What I have come to find is that you
can have the best technology in the world,
but at the end of the day clients deal with
people. I make sure we have the right
teams to be accountable to our clients
and then give them tools to do their jobs. GC: What have been the biggest industry
changes you have seen throughout your
career?
JK: The biggest change has been in
technology and innovation in the fund
administration space. Our clients are all
alternative investment managers with
increasingly complex mandates and they
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GC: How difficult was it to set up your own
fund administration business?
JK: Our timing could not have been worse.
Nobody predicted what was going to hap-
pen in 2007/08, and the impact it would
have throughout the industry. At the time,
there was a lot of interest from the prime
brokerage and private equity community
in the fund administration space. Setting
up Quintillion was quite straightforward,
but after you get the license that’s when
you are competing with the big players. I
might have underestimated how difficult
it would be, but we got some early clients
that were significant names that took a
punt on us and it paid off. However, the
hardest part was being an independent
third-party provider and earning that cred-
itability competing against the big players.
The Hedge Fund Annual 2018
are relaying more and more on data from
their administrators. So we need to stay on
top with technology.
GC: What are the kinds of things that make
for a great day in your line of work?
JK: A great day is when you have a client
telling you are doing a good job, and when
your team is pleased with the work they
are doing. At JP Morgan, we are revamp-
ing the alternatives business and launching
a new technology platform. It is such an
exciting experience, and I often get asked
being an entrepreneur, what attracted me
to join JP Morgan. And honestly it is being
able to use my experiences and apply them
to such a significant brand.
GC: Are there any particular lessons that
you can share for women working in securi-
ties services?
JK: I do a lot of female mentoring, both
privately and professionally as I think it is
really important for women to help other
women. The advice I can give is you have
to realise you won’t be doing everything
correctly every day, but the reality is if you
want to succeed you can make it work.
So stick at it, and it truly is important we
support each other. Sometimes sharing
your experiences with other women and
helping them understand they are not on
their own will provide the most support.