Melanie joined Northern Trust in January 2017, charged with creating a new line of business centered on meeting the portfolio management and technology needs of complex asset allocators around the globe. In late 2018, Melanie led an equity investment in Parilux Investment Technology and built Northern Trust's first cloud-native software business. In early 2019, Melanie increased Northern Trust's equity stake in Parilux to a majority position and launched Northern Trust’s Front Office Solutions. Since launch, the platform has grown to serve over $550BN in AUM. Northern Trust fully acquired Parilux in April 2021. Melanie also serves as the global product executive for alternative investments, directing capital and strategy to the firm's investments in services for limited partners, inclusive of a multi-year digitization initiative utilizing groundbreaking machine learning capabilities.
In January 2021, Melanie took responsibility for the firm's not-for-profit, healthcare, public pension and Taft Hartley businesses and in January 2022, she added responsibility for the insurance and large corporate businesses, as well as Northern Trust's Canada business.
Melanie's remit now spans the entirety of the Asset Servicing business in the Americas, directing the bank's strategy, growth and delivery of all firmwide products & services for asset owners and asset managers in the Americas region.
Melanie brings 25 years of experience in a variety of senior leadership roles, most recently as Chief Operating Officer of Emory Investment Management, one of the top 20 Endowment investment programs in the United States. Prior to Emory Investment Management, she spent over a decade managing operations and technology strategy + execution within Morgan Stanley’s Global Wealth Management division.
Melanie has a M.B.A. / M.S.E., Technology Management (Wharton School of Business & University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering & Applied Sciences), B.A. Political Science (University of Georgia), Advisory Board, Investment Management Due Diligence Association (IMDDA), Chartered Due Diligence Analyst (CDDA), Graduate, SIFMA Securities Industry Institute (SII) and Former Series 7, 27, 63 Licensed Professional.
We recently surveyed 180 global asset owners on their evolving priorities and how they are navigating today’s challenges and positioning for the future.
July 25, 2023
Institutional investors with multi-asset portfolios are under pressure to manage data with advanced, holistic systems that equip them to make faster, better decisions. To meet the data management challenge, many are finding that collaborating with a data automation provider is a cost-effective solution.
July 11, 2023
High-profile incidents in the financial services industry this year have highlighted the importance of due diligence and accurate data for private markets investors. Northern Trust’s Melanie Pickett explains how asset owners can harness the power of their data to assess risk and drive impactful results.
June 11, 2023
FundFire sat down with experts from Northern Trust and ESG data technology platform Novata to learn more about how they are improving data standards in private markets by equipping investors with a holistic view of their data, empowering them to become more informed investors.
April 24, 2023
Melanie Pickett joins The Alternative Investment Podcast to discuss lessons that individual investors can learn from the largest institutional investors.
November 17, 2022
Melanie Pickett joins the Capital Allocator podcast to discuss the technology challenges in the investment office and trends in asset allocation, technology, and more.
August 17, 2022
Change is constant, and that is a good thing. The institutional investment industry has seen significant change in recent years, and it continues to grow and evolve in multiple ways.
May 17, 2022
While many trends are shaping the future of institutional investing, three key factors have significant implications for asset owners, particularly in the area of data science.