Nasdaq, Inc. NDAQ Chief Executive

What Adena Friedman says in public, and what their own SEC filings show they own.

Adena Friedman

Adena Friedman

Chair & CEO · Nasdaq, Inc.

Chief executive since January 2017 and board chair since January 2023, and a Nasdaq veteran before that - head of data products, head of corporate strategy and CFO - with a spell as CFO of The Carlyle Group in between. She has spent her tenure converting an exchange into a software vendor, of which the $10.5 billion Adenza purchase is the largest single step.

What they own

Ownership

Skin in the game
35/ 100
Level 2Aligned

Friedman owns about 0% of Nasdaq, Inc., worth $196.1M at the last close.

CEO since
2017
SEC filings
64
Stake 2.1M reported shares ≈ 0.4% of shares outstanding — no 13G on file, so an estimate 12/35
Founder Hired into the chair; the founder axis scores zero 0/15
Tenure In the chair since Jan 2017 — 9 years 6/10
Track record 1 company sold or taken public · 1 public board seat before this chair 6/15
Direction Exercise-and-sell — 206,451 shares ($18.1M) sold, all covered by option exercises; the underlying stake is flat 4/15
Discipline 2 late Form 4s in 64 filings 7/10
Track record · other companies
  • 2011–14The Carlyle Group · CFO and managing directorlisted on Nasdaq May 2012 during her tenure
  • 2026–Intuit · director

Score = stake band (35) + founder (15) + tenure (10) + track record (15) + 12-month direction (−10…15) + filing discipline (10). An axis we have not researched is left out of the score and of the total it is shown over. Every input links to a filing or to our own research; the bands are ours.

Reported · Forms 3, 4, 5 2.1M Every lot on the person's own filings, as of Apr 3, 2026
Last open-market trade Sale · $9.7M Apr 1, 2026 · 113,611 shares at $85.44 · under a 10b5-1 plan
Paper trail 2 late filings Form 4 covering a 2010-12-13 shares withheld for tax in NASDAQ OMX GROUP, INC. was filed 2010-12-20, 5 business days later; Section 16 allows two.
Reported Nasdaq, Inc. shares Forms 3, 4 and 5 · as of 2026-04-03
01M2M3M 200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Apr 2026: net +18,115 shares across 5 movements (largest: exercise +113,611)Mar 2026: net −113,572 shares across 3 movements (largest: gift −113,572)Feb 2026: net +154,420 shares across 2 movements (largest: award +270,195) 2.1M

Dots mark the months the activity below moved the line. Hover one for that month's net move, how many movements it folds and the largest.

How the stake is held
SecurityHeld viaShares
Common Stock, par value $0.01 per shareDirect1,983,866
Common Stock, par value $0.01 per shareHeld by the A.T. Friedman Irrevocable Trust No.173,500
Common Stock, par value $0.01 per shareHeld by The A.T. Friedman Irrevocable Trust No.273,500
Reported as of 2026-04-032,130,866
Held directly
93%
Vehicles
2 trusts or entities
Last filing
Apr 7, 2026
Activity · last 12 months 10 events folded from 16 filing lines · Every filing on EDGAR ↗
DateTypeWhat happenedSharesPriceValueNote
Apr 3, 2026 Tax Shares withheld for tax · Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share −8,075 $86.65 $700K
Apr 1, 2026 Exercise Option or RSU conversion · Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share +113,611 $22.22 $2.5M
Apr 1, 2026 Sale Open-market sale · Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share −113,611 $85.44 $9.7M under a 10b5-1 plan
Apr 1, 2026 Award Grant or award · Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share +39,929 — —
Apr 1, 2026 Tax Shares withheld for tax · Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share −13,739 $84.89 $1.2M
Mar 11, 2026 Gift Gift across 2 lots · Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share −113,572 — —
Mar 6, 2026 Exercise Option or RSU conversion · Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share +92,840 $22.22 $2.1M
Mar 6, 2026 Sale Open-market sale · Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share −92,840 $90.08 $8.4M under a 10b5-1 plan
Feb 12, 2026 Award Grant or award across 2 lots · Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share +270,195 — —
Feb 12, 2026 Tax Shares withheld for tax · Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share −115,775 $80.42 $9.3M
Every issuer Adena Friedman files as an insider of
CompanyRoleReportedBeneficial% of class
NDAQ NASDAQ, INC. This page Chair and CEO 2,130,866
2026-04-03		 — —
NDAQ: A.T. Friedman Irrevocable Trust No.1 and A.T. Friedman Irrevocable Trust No.2 each appear under several spellings on the filings and are counted once.

Reported is every lot on the person's own Forms 3, 4 and 5 — direct and through trusts. Beneficial is the figure stated on the latest Schedule 13D/G cover page, which can exclude shares the person disclaims and include options exercisable within 60 days, so the two are never added together.

Paper trail

64 filings under CIK 0001240169 · captured 2026-09-10 · All filings on EDGAR ↗

In their own words

Podcasts, interviews & articles

2 recorded appearances

2026

Talk Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business · Mar 19, 2026

Tech Talks Business Features Adena Friedman, Chair, CEO of Nasdaq; and Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO of Snowflake

A fireside chat at the 2026 AI and Future of Finance Conference in which she made trust the precondition for deploying AI in markets, arguing firms should "slow down a little on the front end so we can speed up on the back end" through security review and governance before rollout.

Watch or read →

2025

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