SimCorp, the investment management software arm of Deutsche Börse, named State Street executive Fiona O’Donnell to a newly created chief delivery officer role today (Monday). She will be accountable for client delivery worldwide, from a client’s first onboarding to ongoing service.
The hire puts one executive in charge of moving clients onto the SimCorp One platform as SimCorp leans more on subscription software.
In the third quarter, software-as-a-service revenue in the unit Deutsche Börse built around SimCorp rose 13% year-over-year. The segment’s EBITDA fell 24%.
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One Executive for New and Long-Standing Clients
O’Donnell reports to Chief Executive Peter Sanderson and joins the executive committee, effective immediately. According to SimCorp, it is the first role there to put the whole client delivery process under one executive.
The mandate covers clients going live on SimCorp One this year as well as institutions that have run on SimCorp software for decades. “Fiona will be the one leader accountable for client delivery end to end,” Sanderson said.
Leadership Rebuilt Under Sanderson
The hire extends a reshuffle that began about two years after Deutsche Börse moved to take over the Danish firm. Sanderson, a former GAM Investments chief executive and BlackRock managing director, took over in August 2025.
He replaced Georg Hetrodt, who retired after 27 years at SimCorp. Since then, SimCorp has hired Debbie Townley as chief people officer in March and Neslihan Yegul, formerly of S&P Global, to lead its UK and Northern Europe business in April.
Deutsche Börse had said the deal would lift its group EBITDA target for 2023.
From a Rival Platform Provider
O’Donnell spent more than 18 years working with large asset owners and managers. Most recently she was a client executive and senior vice president at State Street, responsible for major clients going through multi-year transformation programs. She started her career at ABN Amro.
Her former employer sells a competing product. State Street Alpha, built on the Charles River Development system, also offers asset managers a single front-to-back platform.
SimCorp, founded in 1971, has more than 3,500 employees and says it works with more than half of the world’s 100 largest financial companies.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
