BNY Mellon has appointed Edward Watson as executive vice president and chief operations officer – a newly-created position.

Watson will serve as a member of the global operating committee, reporting to Kurt Woetzel, head of global operations and technology and chief administrative officer.

He was most recently executive vice president for operations, technology and general services at Fannie Mae. There he was responsible for all development, infrastructure and operations services across the firm, and in charge of corporate facilities and security.

At BNY Mellon, he will lead “the centralization of certain operations" and "oversee operational activities in our global delivery centers and have responsibility for operations functions that today reside in our businesses,” Woetzel said.

In other previous roles, Watson served as global head of capital markets operations and ICG business services at Citigroup, and in senior positions at Republic Bank and Shearson Lehman Brothers.

In other recent developments, earlier this week it emerged that BNY Mellon’s wealth management business had hired Patrick Cappatt as a senior sales director throughout the Pittsburgh region. Cappatt joined the firm in April and reports to Philip Spina, senior vice president of sales.