Pamela Burns

About Pamela Burns

I am a senior financial services executive with 25+ years of progressive leadership at Northern Trust, specializing in governance, audit oversight, enterprise risk management, and operational resilience. My career has been defined by building strong control environments, fostering regulatory trust, and aligning governance frameworks with business strategy to protect institutional stability and drive growth.Currently, as Senior Vice President for Control, Audit, and Risk within Global Fund Services, I set strategic priorities for operational preparedness, oversee regulatory compliance initiatives, and lead business continuity planning for client servicing operations. My approach combines rigorous oversight with cross-functional collaboration to ensure resilience in a highly dynamic regulatory environment.Previous leadership roles include North America Head of Control for Global Fund Services—where I led a multi-year program delivering ten major control initiatives—and Senior Vice President, Client Executive, managing high-value client relationships and representing the firm in regulatory forums.I am passionate about strengthening organizational governance, developing risk mitigation strategies, and contributing to boards and committees where enterprise risk and strategic oversight are critical.

Experience

1. Senior Vice President, Client Executive, Control Audit Risk, Global Fund Services

   Northern Trust

   Feb 2020 — Present · Chicago, IL, US

   Lead control, audit, and risk oversight, setting strategic priorities for operational preparedness and regulatory compliance across client servicing operations.Executive owner for Business Continuity for the Client Servicing team: draft, review and test continuity plans and run scenario testing to ensure service resilience.Drive and execute a comprehensive strategic plan to deliver key control and audit deliverables while providing oversight and support to internal Audit and Control functions.Partner with Risk and business leadership to review risks, validate control adequacy, and oversee integrity of testing and remediation activities.

Education

• Cleveland State University

  Bachelor's degree

• John F Kennedy high school

  High School Diploma

Skills

• Team Building
• Management
• Financial Analysis
• Leadership
• Investments
• Equities
• Loans
• Strategic Planning
• Asset Management
• Commercial Banking
• Customer Service
• Fixed Income
• Commercial Lending
• Recruiting
• Securities
• Public Speaking
• Finance
• Negotiation
• Wealth Management