(Pictured: Henry Capra)

Henry Capra, an investment operations specialist who was most recently the chief operating officer at BlackRock, has been appointed local head of custody and fund services at JP Morgan.

Capra has joined JP Morgan Investor Services in Sydney following the promotion of Australian-based custody and fund services head, Mark Kelley, to a regional role. American-born Kelley, who reports to New York, will still be based in Sydney.

After a restructure earlier this year, JP Morgan’s client-facing people, such as Bryan Gray, a managing director, and client relationships head Chris Field, report to the regional head responsible for business, Laurence Bailey, based in Hong Kong. Bailey, who ran the company in Australia for many years, now also oversees other non-custody services at JP Morgan for Asia Pacific.

Capra departed BlackRock in April this year, after joining in August 2010 – a year after its takeover of Barclays Global Investors. Many departed the merged firm in Australia, including those who went on to form the successful Vinva Investment Management, also in 2010. Capra previously had similar senior operational roles at AMP Capital and BNP Paribas.