Chief Executive Officer
Nasdaq OMX Group
[PNR]
Acquisitions chart the transformation of Nasdaq over Robert Greifeld’s eight years as president and CEO. They include regional bourses in Boston and Philadelphia, Europe’s Nord Pool power exchange and Stockholm-based OMX, which, in addition to operating several securities exchanges, is a leading supplier of market technology, a $150 million-in-revenue business within what is now Nasdaq OMX Group. Greifeld’s ultimate target — NYSE Euronext — got away this year when Nasdaq’s joint bid with IntercontinentalExchange ran into antitrust problems. Less splashy, but significant to its technology arsenal, are deals Nasdaq closed over the past year for risk management systems company FTEN and market-surveillance technology supplier Smarts Group. Greifeld says Nasdaq is “firing on all cylinders” and positioned “to pursue game-changing opportunities.” The 54-year-old, a former trading platform entrepreneur and SunGard Data Systems executive, says Nasdaq now responds to incoming orders in less than100 microseconds. “It was only several years ago that we broke the millisecond barrier,” he notes. Nasdaq is helping other markets keep pace through sales of its trading platform.
