Redefiners
The Only Certainty Is Change: Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman on AI, Innovation & Market Evolution
09 Apr 2025
When it comes to global financial markets, the only certainty is the likelihood of uncertainty and change. The world is in a period of transformation on multiple levels fueled by AI and technology innovation, shifting economic policies, and infrastructure modernization. At the foundation of all of this transformation is the unrelenting need for long-term capital. In today’s special in-studio episode, Clarke Murphy sits down with a leader who’s not only deftly navigating her organization through change in her role as Nasdaq CEO, but she’s doing it all at the speed of global capital. Adena Friedman talks about Nasdaq’s evolution from the world’s first electronic stock exchange to its current role as a global technology company serving the broader financial system and capital markets. She digs into her career journey from intern to CEO at Nasdaq, how Nasdaq stays on the leading edge of technology and innovation, and how to compete for and keep top tech talent. And she discusses the $80 trillion investment opportunity to bring every society in every economy forward to face the realities of the world that we're living in today. We'll also hear from Tristan Jervis, a leadership advisor specializing in AI transformation, who will discuss the four critical steps CEOs can take to build AI-powered organizations. Four things you’ll learn from this episode: Adena’s personal story, career and leadership journey, and advice on how to navigate change and uncertainty What to do to take advantage of impending changes to the global economy How to nurture and grow a culture of innovation to stay ahead of disruption How Nasdaq competes for and keeps top tech and AI talent If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like these Redefiners episodes: Talking Tough Decisions with TCW President and CEO Katie Koch Leadership Lounge: How to Future-Proof Your Leadership Elections, Geopolitics, and Global Business: A Conversation with Former President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso Leadership Lounge: Unleashing AI’s potential: Are you ready to lead the charge? Private Investment Guru David Rubenstein Goes Public on How to Be a Successful Leader & Investor Leadership Lounge: What do top-performing teams have in common?
Full Episode
Call them changemakers. Call them rule breakers. We call them Redefiners. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Redefiners. It's Clark Murphy with Russell Reynolds Associates. We've got a special jolt of caffeine today because we're recording live off the floor of the NASDAQ exchange. If you want some energy, you've got to come here. It's amazing.
For those who aren't familiar, the exchange was the first electronic exchange founded in 1971. and is home to the listings of some of those high-energy companies like NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta. So you've got the picture. But of course, the exchange is just one of their businesses, and we're going to talk about that a little bit later on.
Before we get started, just a reminder to our listeners, if you are watching this on YouTube, you can go down and hit the subscribe button. And for those of you who are listening, we would love for you to give us some feedback on any questions you have, what you think of it, and keep listening wherever you get your podcasts.
So a lot of the work we do at Russell Reynolds Associates with CEOs and board members is talking about the themes today of innovation, pace of change, culture, talent, making sure you're relevant, but keeping the roots of a great culture. We're joined today with a CEO who is doing that at pace and scale as we speak. And we're joined today by Adina Friedman, who's the chair and CEO of NASDAQ.
earlier served as president, also COO. She left briefly at one point to be the chief financial officer of the Carlyle Group, in fact, took them public as the CFO. And so she's seen the listings from both sides of the scoreboard. Earlier, she was at NASDAQ running their data products business. And she's done a variety of things, starting by joining the company as an intern out of business school.
Adina, welcome to Redefiners. Thanks for joining us.
It's great to be here, Clark. Thank you so much. This is fantastic.
Well, it's good to be in the same place at the same time. Agreed. I have to laugh. You and I may be some of the rare people that have spent 30 years on and off with the same company. Agreed. Agreed. So maybe we start there. Having started as an intern to become CEO, you started as an intern, became CEO.
Tell us about the journey and maybe some of the milestones that help you be the leader you are today.
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