Adena Friedman has been the chief executive officer of Nasdaq since 2017 and was appointed chair of Nasdaq’s board of directors in 2023.
Prior to her current role, Friedman held several senior leadership roles at Nasdaq, including president and COO, where she was responsible for the operations of the company’s business segments with a focus on driving efficiency, product development, growth, and expansion.
She rejoined Nasdaq in 2014, after serving as chief financial officer and managing director of The Carlyle Group from 2011 to 2014, playing a critical role in taking the company public in 2012.
Before Carlyle, Friedman was a key member of Nasdaq's management team for over a decade, serving in a variety of roles, including head of the company's data products business, head of corporate strategy, and chief financial officer. She played an instrumental role in Nasdaq’s acquisition strategy, overseeing the acquisitions of INET, OMX, and the Philadelphia and Boston exchanges. She originally joined Nasdaq in 1993 as an intern.
Since 2018, Friedman has served as a Class B director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In 2024, Friedman was elected to the Business Roundtable (BRT) board of directors and currently serves as the chair of the BRT's technology committee. Since 2020, Friedman has served on the Board of Directors of FCLTGlobal, a nonprofit that researches tools to encourage long-term investing. Friedman has been a member of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust since 2020.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Williams College and a Master of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.
