Melanie Seymour
Melanie Seymour, Managing Director, is Head of BlackRock Budapest and Head of Global Client Service.
She has over 30 years’ experience in finance and banking, holding senior roles in technology, operations, and change management, as well as running her own business. Here, Melanie developed and implemented a mortgage processing proposition with one partner and was responsible for developing the business and operational strategy and recruiting the team from start up to a business with turnover of £20m and a leadership team of 10 within eight years. She defined and implemented a growth strategy incorporating the changing commercial needs of a growth company with challenging stakeholders and an industry undergoing more change than it had seen over the previous 50 years.
Melanie ran and eventually sold a business within BlackRock before being asked to move to Hungary to set up a new innovation centre in Budapest. She was responsible for defining the vision, developing a growth strategy and building a brand within in Hungary. She grew the office to over 500 within 2 years and it has become an integral part of BlackRock’s global operating model where the team think differently, try different approaches and use technology in different ways.
In April 2019, Melanie was appointed as the Head of Global Client Services for BlackRock, where she is responsible for leading a global team to deliver an outstanding client experience to new and existing clients across all products and distribution channels.
She is passionate about education and developing the next generation of leaders, mentoring a number of men and women both internally and externally. In 2015, Melanie was recognized as one of Brummells Top 30 Inspiring Women in the City. She joined the Advisory Board of Women in Banking and Finance in 2017, after three years as its Vice President. She was Co Chair of the EMEA chapter of BlackRock internal women’s committee (WIN ) until 2019 where she lead a programme of events to support women (and men) in their career journey through the firm.
In 2018, Melanie was awarded the Knight of Cross from the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic as an acknowledgement of the “valuable contribution to the modernisation and improvement of the Hungarian economy, the financial system and the strengthening of the innovation capability of the country”. She has established strong relationships with various universities in Budapest and worked closely with Hungarian embassies abroad, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, to relocate Hungarians back to Hungary.
She is an active member of the Advisory Board of Leading Industrial Associations and Universities.
Melanie splits her time between Budapest and London with her husband and two sons.
