Investment operations industry veteran Dharmendra Dayabhai has been honoured with the Conexus Financial Lifetime Achievement Award for more than 30 years of service.

While accepting the award at the Investment Operations Conference in Sydney, Dayabhai, head of portfolio management and implementation at UniSuper, encouraged peers to evolve with the industry and embrace change.

“Reflecting on [the Investment Operations Conference] program, things have changed so much from when I started my career 35 years ago, and it’s mainly due to technology,” he said. “Given the changes that are happening all the time, you have to transform, evolve and always be relevant. I’ve always kept that in mind in my career.”

The Australian Custodial Services Association (ACSA) also announced its annual award winners on the day. The ACSA awards recognise voluntary, individual contributions to the industry.

Narelle Rutter of BNP Paribas Securities Services, Gordon Little of ACSA, Gregory Wilkin of HSBC Securities Services and Fergus Walshe of BNP Paribas Securities Services were this year’s recipients.

Rutter has chaired the Corporate Actions Working group for the last three years, and instrumental in leading a variety of industry consultation and programs to improve standards, while Walshe also won for his work on the ACSA Attribution Managed Investment Trust (AMIT) Taskforce in 2017.

Wilkin, another veteran, won the Service to Industry Award for his work in improving industry efficiency, while Little was recognised for his work as director of ACSA for more than seven years until November last year. During that time, he served as executive sponsor of the Tax Working Group, and as treasurer.

ACSA chair David Knights said he was pleased to add four more names to the honour roll and thanked them for their contribution to professionalism.

“We are pleased to again recognise individual contributions to the industry,” Knights said.