For the fifth consecutive year, Donna Milrod, executive vice president and chief product officer of Boston-based State Street Corporation, is a Most Powerful Women in Finance honoree.
At State Street, Milrod is responsible for leading the product development strategy, value propositions, and growth of the Investment servicing business. She leads a team of 600 and has eight direct reports. Additionally, she serves on the executive committee and reports to Joerg Ambrosius, State Street's head of investment services.
Milrod is also responsible for leading strategy, value propositions and growth of the company's asset servicing business, which represents more than 80 % of State Street's overall business.
For 2024, State Street reported $12.9 billion in revenue, up 8.6% from 2023. Total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024 totaled $3.4 billion, up 12% from the year-ago period.
Despite uncertainties in the market, during the
"The economic and geopolitical shifts we've seen recently have had a real impact not just on how we do business, but on how we show up as leaders. At State Street, we've always operated with a global mindset," Milrod told American Banker.
"With over 230 years of history and more than 52,000 employees across 32 countries—78% of whom are outside the U.S.—, we are deeply embedded in the communities where we live and work. The increased turmoil and volatility that we've experienced since January has been felt acutely by our clients, and particularly, those clients outside of the U.S.," she said.
Milrod is a champion of innovation and has helped strengthen State Street's position in the digital asset and ETF space. A partnership with Taurus, a global leader in digital asset infrastructure, is the foundation for State Street's tokenization and custody solutions to enhance capabilities for digital asset clients.
Milrod was instrumental in securing the servicing for three of the 11 Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs launched in 2025. Milrod and her team were at the helm of the digital business while asset managers were seeking approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer ETF share classes within new and existing mutual funds as multi-class structures. Her team was also instrumental in helping secure more than 60 filers seeking to implement this new structure, resulting in more than half of them being serviced by State Street.
As a part of her philanthropic and community involvement, Milrod has been on the board of the Partnership Fund for New York City for 15 years. The organization works with business experts from government and private sectors to expand economic opportunities in New York City. Milrod is also the only independent director of private equity technology firm Orion Innovation, a private equity-owned Technology Services company.
"Outside of work, I've stayed active in the community, especially around causes that matter deeply to me, like expanding STEM opportunities for girls, creating jobs, and tackling poverty," Milrod said.
