The 2013 Tech 50: Lieve Mostrey

To say managers of information technology have achieved “co-pilot” status in the financial services industry — as Lieve Mostrey does — may be stating the obvious. But over the 30 years since Mostrey started out in the IT department of Generale Bank in Brussels, she has borne witness to how “integral a part of the business” technology is and considers it worth repeating. After rising through operations and technology positions to COO of  Fortis Bank before its acquisition by BNP Paribas in 2009, Mostrey in 2010 became executive director and chief technology and services officer of Brussels-based Euroclear, the international group of central securities depositories (CSDs) on whose board she had sat since 2006. Technology is “a raison d’être,” part of a “holistic business view” encompassing product development and Euroclear’s overall vision, asserts the 52-year-old, who reports to CEO Tim Howell. An innovation Euroclear introduced in 2012, Collateral Highway, is reducing various types of counterparty exposures by moving €780 billion ($1 trillion) of collateral daily to where it is needed. Aiming to partner with agent banks and CSDs worldwide, Euroclear and Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (seeMichael Bodson, No. 18) in May announced plans to develop a joint collateral-processing service.