Global Custodian shortlists four for 2026 APAC award

Global Custodian named four nominees for its 2026 Industry Person of the Year award for Asia Pacific: Alvin Chia, Francois Verlaine, Rehan Ahmed and Wai Mei Hong. The winner will be announced at the Leaders in Custody Asia event on May 28, 2026, at Raffles Hotel in Singapore.

The award recognises individuals who have made contributions in custody, securities services and market infrastructure over the past 12 months, with attention to post-trade systems, digital assets and cross-border market connectivity. Global Custodian noted that making the shortlist is a recognition of leadership across the region. Phil Brown, CEO of Clearstream Banking, was named Industry Person of the Year at Global Custodian’s Leaders in Custody awards in London earlier this month following a live attendee vote.

Alvin Chia is head of digital assets innovation, APAC at Northern Trust. He leads the firm’s digital assets strategy across the region and engages with regulators, industry groups, fintechs and market participants on market infrastructure projects. Over the past year he has been involved with Singapore’s MAS Project Guardian, Hong Kong’s Project Ensemble and the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Project Acacia. Chia chairs the Digital Assets Working Group at the Australian Custodial Services Association. He joined Northern Trust in 2022 after roles at Bain & Company and DBS Bank.

Francois Verlaine is managing director and head of ASEAN & South Asia for financing and securities services at Standard Chartered. He manages the bank’s securities services business across markets with different regulatory and maturity profiles. Under his leadership Standard Chartered secured mandates including Thailand’s Government Pension Fund and Singapore institutions such as LGI and FWD. Verlaine joined Standard Chartered in 2013 after more than eight years at JPMorgan in product, sales and strategic business development roles.

Rehan Ahmed is chief executive officer of Marketnode. He leads the development of digital market infrastructure for funds, fixed income and digital assets. In the past year Marketnode worked with Euroclear on an end-to-end funds processing solution in Singapore that links Euroclear’s FundsPlace platform with Marketnode’s blockchain-enabled infrastructure. Marketnode also partnered with Euroclear and Microsoft on AI-driven workflow, tokenisation and fund distribution projects and was named an authorised distributor of WisdomTree’s digital funds for institutional investors in Singapore. Ahmed joined Marketnode in 2021 and previously led fixed income products and digital asset initiatives at SGX Group.

Wai Mei Hong is managing director, senior country officer for Singapore and ASEAN head of global corporate banking at JPMorgan. Over the past year she has been associated with major institutional mandates in the region, including Income Insurance’s appointment of JPMorgan as custodian for its SGD40 billion asset base and a transition of developed market global equity and fixed income assets for the Employees Provident Fund of Malaysia valued at more than $40 billion. Hong has worked at JPMorgan since 2007 and earlier held senior roles at ABN AMRO in Singapore.

The Industry Person of the Year award will be presented at Leaders in Custody Asia, which will bring together senior leaders from securities services and fund services across the region. Global Custodian congratulated the four nominees on their shortlisting.