Stacey Cunningham discusses her journey at the NYSE from one-time intern to its first female president and her efforts to bring innovation and efficiency to the NYSE during a time of evolution in the marketplace.
On being the first female president of the NYSE: “What was really clear is it was so important to not just other women, but just to people to see that you could be successful and you didn’t have to look like the picture of what people think your role should look like. And that was a teaching moment for me because I realized that it’s so important to be an example when you’re in a senior role. So I think it’s really important to recognize when you’re in a senior leadership role that you’re actually redrawing boundaries for everyone else around you.”
On the future of direct listings on the NYSE: “For a direct listing you have to be willing to not raise capital right away. That can’t be your driving factor. It doesn’t mean you can’t raise it down the road. But you can’t raise it. You’re not raising money as part of the listing. And the branded visibility is not, you know, you’re not going out and attracting investors and customers from the roadshow piece of it. But it doesn’t mean that you can’t use this process to continue to achieve the other goals, like, liquidity and currency. And that’s what we saw. So I do think because it was so smooth and because there are now two [direct listings] there will be other companies that consider it deeply.”
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