NYSE Group COO Stacey Cunningham will become president of the organization on Friday, marking the first time a woman has led the exchange in its 226-year history. She will take over from Thomas Farley, who has led NYSE Group since 2014.
Cunningham began her career as on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor in 1996 and will become the 67th president of NYSE. (Part of Intercontinental Exchange, NYSE Group includes the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE American and NYSE Arca.)
“Stacey is really smart and wants to get things done. She’s an executive kind of person,” said John Jacobs, executive director of the Center for Financial Markets and Policy at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, in an interview. “I am not surprised at all that she was appointed. It’s great news.”
Others agree. “More than a half century after Muriel Siebert became the first woman to own a seat on the NYSE, Stacey represents a new generation of leadership for the NYSE Group,” said Jeff Sprecher, chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, in a statement.
“I’m confident that Stacey, who started as a summer intern on the NYSE floor in 1994, will continue to propel this vital institution forward. Stacey and our team are steadfastly committed to ensuring that the U.S. remains the center of world’s capital markets,” Sprecher added.
Other female leaders of exchanges include Adena Friedman, the president and CEO of Nasdaq, who took on that role in early 2017. She was president and COO of the organization in 2016 and served as president starting in mid-2014.