NICSA Award Winner: Paul O'Neil

Paul O'Neil received the lifetime achievement award this year for his deep career in the mutual fund industry as well as for his nearly four decades of work with NICSA.

Since first joining NICSA in 1977, O'Neil has served on numerous committees and has held leadership positions within the organization, such as committee chair and co-chair, a liaison with strategic partners and a member of the NICSA board of directors for nearly 15 years.

With nearly 30 years of financial services experience, he has served International Financial Data Services primarily in administrative services positions, according to the Boston firm.

Since 2012, O'Neil has been responsible for covering IFDS's Asian offshore support centers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, IFDS says.

Through his work with the firm and in Asia, he helped State Street develop the group's expansion strategy into additional Asia Pacific local markets.

O'Neil began his securities career as a senior vice president with Boston Financial Data Services in 1981 where he was responsible for servicing domestic mutual funds for bank insurance and financial intermediary distributors.

After leaving Boston Financial, the firm reported that its account balance grew from $2.8 million to $15.5 million, or 600 to 2,600 funds, during his tenure, NICSA says.

He later joined IFDS as managing director in 1999, where he was focused on U.K. operations. O'Neil served as CEO of IFDS in Luxemburg and was also head of European Shareholder Services in Luxembourg and Ireland.

In addition to his duties as managing director, O'Neil serves as a director on the board of IFDS Ireland, Luxembourg and Percana as well as maintaining board member status for the State Street joint venture and Insigma/Hengtian Technologies, a technology services company in Hangzhou, China. 

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Law and regulation Money Management Executive
MORE FROM FINANCIAL PLANNING