Our People

Sally Surgeon

Sally is a Senior Vice President and Head of Client Services Australasia and Head of Sydney office. In this role, Sally is responsible for relationship and client servicing for asset servicing clients based in Australia and New Zealand and as Head of the Sydney office is responsible for Sydney based partners, clients, consultants and industry relationships.

Sally joined Northern Trust in 2005 and has over 20 years’ experience within the financial services industry which includes the delivery of custody, fund administration and investment operations and reporting services to asset manager and asset owner client segments. Prior to Northern Trust, Sally worked at State Street where she held a number of positions in operations, project management and consulting services in both their Sydney and London offices.

Sally holds a Bachelor of Economics (Macquarie University) and is a member of both CFA Society of the UK (IMC) and a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia. Sally has previously been a member of the Women in Super’s Victoria Committee (2012/13) and chair of the Australian Custodial Services Association’s (ACSA’s) Communications Working Group.

Jennifer Saunders

Jennifer is a Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for State Street Global Services in Australia. In this role, Jennifer is responsible for delivering service excellence across the Australian Client base.

Jennifer joined State Street in 2003 through the Deutsche Bank acquisition and has over 25 years’ experience in financial services. She has held a number of senior roles in EMEA and APAC across Client Operations, Client Service, Operating Model Transformation and Strategic Relationship Management.

Jennifer is a Director on the State Street Australia Limited Board.

Ben Sung

Ben has been in and around investment funds for 30 years. He joined Ausmaq Limited in 2007 now Clearstream Australia Limited where he has held roles across several disciplines since 2007, including Head of Operations, Head of Corporate Services and Relationship Management and most recently since 2019 as Head of Sales, Customer and Product. Immediately prior to joining Ausmaq, Ben was Principal of PRD for 3 years, a leading real estate agency on the Lower North Shore of Sydney. Ben commenced his career in finance as a fund accountant with Chase Manhattan Bank (JP Morgan) and since that time has held a number of roles in investment funds servicing from leading fund accounting teams, investment operations, risk and compliance, relationship management and now sales and product.

Ben is a Responsible Manager at Clearstream and currently sits as an external Compliance Committee member of Man Investments Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) from the University of Technology Sydney and has a Graduate Certificate in Applied Finance & Investment from Finsia. He has also been a Certified Practising Accountant (CPA) since 1992. He remains a licensed real estate and business agent and auctioneer.

Stephen Coutts

Stephen has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry and joined Citi in March 2020 as part of the RBC acquisition. He has previously worked at J.P. Morgan for 20 years. In his career, he has worked extensively in Treasury Services, Markets and Securities Services businesses globally in front-, middle- and back-office capacities. Stephen is an industry advocate having chaired ACSA Regulatory Affairs for over five years and continues to actively participate in regulatory change and digital assets. He has experience in delivering large product developments and supporting operating and technology team in successfully executing large change initiatives. Most recently he was the Program Director for the transition of the RBC clients to Citi.

Janelle McCoy

Janelle joined HSBC Markets and Security Services as Head of Client Management for Australia and New Zealand at the beginning of April 2024, bringing over 25 years of financial services experience across Sydney and London. Prior to joining HSBC, Janelle worked for Royal Bank of Canada for nearly 18 years in a variety of roles including: Coverage, Relationship & Client Management and Business Management.

Elaine Vaisanen

Elaine Vaisanen is the Asia Pacific Head of Fund Services Operations for JP Morgan and is responsible for delivering operational services across the region. Elaine is also the Australia and New Zealand CIB Operations lead where she has responsibility for the overall operations execution for these locations and is a member of the Asia Pacific CIB Operations Leadership Team and the Australia and New Zealand Location Management and Operating Committees.

Elaine has 25 years of Securities Services experience, 23 of which have been with J.P. Morgan Fund Services. Prior to relocating to Sydney, Australia from Europe in 2023, Elaine held the position of the head of EMEA Fund Accounting NAV Operations, as well as the Head of Luxembourg Fund Services Operations.

Elaine holds an MBA in Business Administration, and a BA Hons from University College Dublin.