(Bloomberg) -- Nasdaq Inc. promoted Adena Friedman to chief executive officer, handing over control of the Nasdaq Stock Market’s parent as Donald Trump’s election portends the potential for a rollback of financial regulations.
Friedman will become one of Wall Street’s most-influential women and the first to run a major U.S. exchange. The 47-year-old is taking over from Bob Greifeld, who is shifting to the chairman role after serving as CEO since 2003.
She joined Nasdaq as an intern in 1993, then ascended to positions throughout the New York-based company. After about three years at private-equity firm Carlyle Group as chief financial officer, she returned to Nasdaq in 2014.
“Adena’s been with us over 20 years and knows every single aspect of the business,” Greifeld said in a phone interview. “When I think about all the successions I’ve seen across the corporate landscape over the past 14 years, I think she comes to the job better prepared than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
Friedman will be tasked with moving the $11 billion exchange group forward in a shifting regulatory environment. President-elect Trump wants to overturn parts of the Dodd-Frank Act, a landmark 2010 law with wide-reaching effects on trading. And just minutes after Friedman’s new role was announced Monday, the head of Nasdaq’s main regulator -- Mary Jo White of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission -- revealed she would step down when Barack Obama leaves office in January.
Regulatory Change
During an interview Monday, Friedman said that from gauging investor reaction to the U.S. election and given that Republicans control Congress, she sees the possibility of contending with regulatory change.
“There’s some opportunity for deregulation, and modifying regulations that are in place,” Friedman said. “Our role is to make sure we provide fair and efficient markets and equal opportunity. We have always done that.”
When Greifeld, 59, joined the company, its main business was running one U.S. stock exchange. He oversaw an expansion into Europe and shifted the company away from just being an operator of stock exchanges, and into a technology and data business. Greifeld grew the company through acquisitions, buying a platform for trading U.S. Treasuries, an investor-relations service to help attract and retain corporate listings, a venue for trading shares of private companies and a Canadian market. Regulators rebuffed his attempt to buy the New York Stock Exchange.
Dark Pools
Among the company’s newer ambitions is managing private platforms called dark pools for brokers. Nasdaq inked a deal earlier this month with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to manage day-to-day operations of its dark pool, Sigma X.
Rich Repetto, an exchange analyst at Sandler O’Neill & Partners LP, said the management change was widely expected and unlikely to change Nasdaq’s trajectory.
“This was a thought-out succession plan,” Repetto said in a phone interview. “There shouldn’t be any material change in strategy.”
Friedman is taking over as brokers voice anger that exchanges are charging too much for their proprietary market data, which is vital information for traders. The newest entrant among U.S. stock exchanges -- IEX Group Inc.’s Investors Exchange -- built its reputation by challenging the model other exchange groups use, in part by not charging for market data. Friedman, who once ran Nasdaq’s data business, said she’s prepared to talk about the topic with customers.
“We will listen to them and work with them very carefully,” she said. “It’s a debate that’s been going on for 15 years and I expect it to continue.”
Nasdaq’s announcement comes after another management shakeup at an exchange group last week. CME Group Inc. said Friday that its CEO, Phupinder Gill, will step down at the end of the year, turning the role over to Chairman Terry Duffy.
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