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Three is the magic number
for Harwood-Jones
In March Global Custodian awarded Margaret Harwood-Jones, global head of securities
services at Standard Chartered, the coveted Lifetime Achievement award. We take
a look over her illustrious time within the securities services industry.
M
argaret Harwood-Jones de-
scribes her career in securities
services in threes – spending
three decades in financial services, with
three different institutions - HSBC, BNP
Paribas, and now, Standard Chartered.
However, she also describes the career
move that set her on the path to be-
come Global Custodian’s latest Lifetime
Achievement Award winner as “uninten-
tional”.
“At that juncture, I did not appreciate
the significance of the industry, nor un-
derstand the business,” Harwood-Jones
explains regarding her move into securi-
ties services at HSBC.
The prospects of promotion and the
opportunity to move onto the next level
of management within the UK bank was
what convinced Harwood-Jones to go for
the job, yet the process was anything but
straight forward.
“I was the only woman that was short-
listed and was at least 10 years younger
the job just 24 hours later. But to make
that transition was not all that simple,
especially with her colleagues trying to
convince her at the time not to take it.
“My perspective on the
business has evolved, and
it is the experience from the
roles I have had which has
impacted this.”
“Everyone tried to talk me out of it – the
most worrying was the consistent mes-
sage about being careful – i.e. following a
career that would go nowhere. Looking
back, some of their counsel wasn’t wholly
misplaced. This was back in the 1990s;
UK custody banks hadn’t been invested in
and almost all then sold their franchises
to another, most often a US bank. None of
that ‘advice’ put me off however and here
I am still, 25 years later.”
“The removal of redundant and duplicated processes across
the service chain is happening.”
than the rest of the candidates. What
happened next wasn’t as I might have
expected. The interview was a disas-
ter – I couldn’t get a word in edgeways;
no opportunity to present myself or my
suitability for the role.”
No going back
To her surprise that she was offered
40
Global Custodian
Summer 2018
It has been a career which has seen
Harwood-Jones oversee several impor-
tant businesses, including roles as deputy
head of global investor services at HSBC,
running the asset manager and alterna-
tive investment segment at BNP Paribas
Securities Services, and eventually, global
head of securities services at Standard
Chartered Bank in Singapore.
And during her time with each of the
three banks, she has gained a range of
different perspectives on the global secu-
rities services industry.
“My perspective on the business has
evolved, and it is the experience from
the roles I have had which has impacted
this,” she explains. “At HSBC, I was fo-
cused exclusively on the UK marketplace;
with BNP Paribas I was working for a
franchise with European heritage which
then became global. Now with Standard
Chartered in a global role, my perspective
is shaped by the portfolio of emerging
and frontier markets across Asia, Africa
and the Middle East that I oversee.”
Tough decisions
Harwood-Jones also explains that the