

Electronic stock quotes and trading methods were building blocks of Nasdaq as early as the 1970s. Today the global exchange operator prides itself on its technology, something it has in common with stalwarts like Alphabet (Google), Apple, and Microsoft that are listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Senior management has the pedigree. Chair Robert Greifeld, before serving as CEO from 2003 through 2016, was a financial technology entrepreneur and a senior executive of SunGard Data Systems. Adena Friedman, who started as an intern in 1993 and has had a hand in many of Nasdaq's growth initiatives and acquisitions, took over as CEO in January. In chief information officer Bradley Peterson, the company has leading- and bleeding-edge street cred.
A former CIO at eBay and Charles Schwab Corp. who took the executive vice president–level post at Nasdaq in 2013, Peterson regularly visits Silicon Valley, where he has a home and maintains close ties with the venture capitalists of Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and other firms that open doors to emerging technology and innovation. A technological engine in itself, Nasdaq has development centers in Boston, New York, Denver, the San Francisco area; Sydney; Bangalore, India; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Stockholm. "From an operational standpoint, we can follow the sun," keeping R&D teams operating around the clock, Peterson, 57, explains. "And we can tap into innovation," which likewise is well dispersed around the globe.
A measurable, bottom-line impact is Nasdaq Market Technology, a business unit headed by EVP Lars Ottersgård, which has supplied systems to more than 85 marketplaces in 50 countries. It accounted for $275 million of Nasdaq's $2.3 billion in total revenue last year and expanded relationships with the likes of the Australian Securities Exchange, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, and Switzerland's SIX Group. Meanwhile, Nasdaq unveiled a new modular architecture, the Financial Framework, to make it easier to add components and take advantage of blockchain, machine learning, and other advances. Nasdaq is in the forefront of financial industry experimentation with blockchain. Its San Francisco–based partner, Chain, has been integrated into the Financial Framework, and Peterson says, "We are open and agnostic with respect to Ethereum, Hyperledger, and other frameworks that emerge." Nasdaq has worked with its Tallinn exchange and the government of Estonia to record electronic proxy votes securely on the blockchain.
![]() 2. Chris Isaacson Bats Global Markets ![]() 3. Bradley Peterson Nasdaq ![]() 4. Brad Levy MarkitSERV ![]() 5. Dan Keegan Citi |
![]() 6. Glenn Lesko Bloomberg Tradebook ![]() 7. Bryan Durkin CME Group ![]() 8. Mayur Kapani Intercontinental Exchange ![]() 9. Mike Blum KCG Holdings ![]() 10. Raj Mahajan Goldman Sachs Group |
![]() 11. Ronald DePoalo Fidelity Institutional ![]() 12. Nick Themelis MarketAxess Holdings ![]() 13. Jenny Knott NEX Optimisation ![]() 14. Billy Hult Tradeweb Markets ![]() 15. Rob Park IEX Group |
![]() 16. Bill Chow & Richard Leung Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing ![]() 17. John Mackay (Mack) Gill MillenniumIT ![]() 18. Paul Hamill Citadel Securities ![]() 19. Eric Noll Convergex ![]() 20. Veronica Augustsson Cinnober Financial Technology |
![]() 21. Tyler Moeller & Joshua Walsky Broadway Technology ![]() 22. Alasdair Haynes Aquis Exchange ![]() 23. Gaurav Suri Arcesium ![]() 24. Manoj Narang Mana Partners ![]() 25. Michael Chin & Neill Penney Thomson Reuters |
![]() 26. Robert Sloan S3 Partners ![]() 27. Anton Katz & Stephen Mock AQR Capital Management ![]() 28. Donal Byrne Corvil ![]() 29. Stu Taylor Algomi ![]() 30. Alfred Eskandar Portware |
![]() 31. Steven Randich Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ![]() 32. R. Cromwell Coulson OTC Markets Group ![]() 33. Peter Maragos Dash Financial ![]() 34. John Fawcett Quantopian ![]() 35. Donald Ross III PDQ Enterprises |
![]() 36. Jennifer Nayar Vela Trading Technologies ![]() 37. Dan Raju Tradier ![]() 38. Susan Estes OpenDoor Trading ![]() 39. David Mercer LMAX Exchange ![]() 40. Oki Matsumoto Monex Group |