Adena Friedman

Adena Friedman has been the Chief Executive Officer of Nasdaq since Jan. 1, 2017, and was appointed Chair of the Board of Directors on Jan. 1, 2023. As the first female CEO to lead a global stock exchange, she brings more than 20 years of industry leadership and expertise, and is credited with significantly shaping Nasdaq’s transformation into a leading global exchange and technology solutions company serving the financial industry.

Prior to being named CEO, Friedman served as Nasdaq's President and Chief Operating Officer and was responsible for overseeing all of the company’s business segments with a focus on driving efficiency, product development, growth and expansion.

She rejoined Nasdaq in 2014 after serving as Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director of The Carlyle Group from March 2011 to June 2014 and playing a critical role in taking the company public in May 2012.

Before Carlyle, Friedman was a key member of Nasdaq's management team for over a decade, serving in a variety of roles, including head of the company's data products business, head of corporate strategy and Chief Financial Officer. She played an instrumental role in Nasdaq’s acquisition strategy, overseeing the acquisitions of INET, OMX, and the Philadelphia and Boston Exchanges. She originally joined Nasdaq in 1993 as an intern.

Since December 2018, Friedman has served as a Class B director to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In January 2024, she was elected to the Business Roundtable (BRT) Board of Directors and serves as the Chair of the BRT’s Technology Committee. She was also elected to the Board of Directors of FCLTGlobal, a non-profit organization that researches tools that encourage long-term investing, in January 2020. Later that year, Friedman began her term as a member of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust. Additionally, in 2023, Forbes named her to both their 50 Over 50 and Power Women lists.

Friedman earned a Master of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management and holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Williams College.