Hanneke Smits sounds relieved that her appointment as chief executive of BNY Mellon Investment Management occurred several months after the start of the Covid pandemic, as it allowed her vital time to adjust to the new way of working.

“I’m glad it wasn’t this time a year ago, when we were all trying to adapt to working from home,” says Smits, who was given the top job at the $2.2trn asset manager in October. “By the time I took over, everything was quite well established.”