Farah Ballands has decided to step down as chief executive officer of Ocorian. She will be succeeded by Frederik van Tuyll, the current chairman, on March 31.

She guided Ocorian and Estera through a merger last year. Estera was spun off from law firm Applebly in 2015, and Ms Ballands became Estera’s CEO in January 2016. She held that post until the merger with Ocorian, and has been CEO of Ocorian for the past year.

Ms Ballands said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed leading the business through the acquisition and merger with Estera. However, now we are one year on, the time is right for me to hand over the reins. I am confident that we have built an excellent management team, created a platform for growth and that Ocorian will go from strength to strength.”

Ocorian provides corporate and fiduciary services, fund administration and capital markets. It has offices around the world. Its Bermudian office is on Victoria Street, and a year ago Ocorian had a 74-strong team on the island.

The company’s next CEO, Mr van Tuyll, was appointed chairman of Ocorian in 2019.

He said “We want to ensure continuity for our clients and employees and it therefore makes total sense for me to combine the responsibilities of chairman and CEO. Our strategy will remain the same and we will continue to build our business.”

“Farah has done an outstanding job and will be sorely missed. She has been incredibly ambitious and achieved a remarkable amount: firstly, for Estera and most recently, of course, for Ocorian. Under her stewardship we have successfully brought everyone together so that we are now operating more collaboratively and as one unified business. Her agility, hard work and effort has built a solid foundation for our business. I am extremely grateful to her and, given the personally challenging year she and her family have had, I fully understand her decision.”