NYSE Shakes Up Leadership as President Cunningham Steps Down

(Bloomberg) -- Intercontinental Exchange Inc. announced a series of leadership changes, including naming Lynn Martin as president of the New York Stock Exchange to replace current head Stacey Cunningham.

Martin, 45, will become the third woman to lead the New York Stock Exchange after Cunningham steps aside and joins the board of directors, the company said in a letter sent to employees Monday. ICE also named Sharon Bowen as the first female chair of NYSE, replacing Jeff Sprecher, ICE’s current chairman and chief executive officer.

Martin will officially step into her new role as president on Jan. 3, according to a posting on the company’s website. 

Cunningham, 47, is a senior female banker and was the 67th president of the NYSE, where she was once an intern. She held roles in management including chief operating officer, and took over as president in 2018.

“Stacey led the NYSE through an extraordinary era that saw its technology prove resilient and its trading systems thrive in even the most turbulent times,” Sprecher said in the letter. “She begins a new chapter with the exchange better and stronger for her tireless efforts, and with our deepest thanks.”

Shares of ICE, the parent of NYSE, are headed toward their seventh-straight annual gain, and have posted a 14% increase since January. 

Martin leads ICE’s fixed-income and data services. She will continue to serve as chair of that business while Amanda Hindlian, a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. veteran and currently the global head of capital markets at NYSE, takes over as its new president.

“I don’t accept the phrase, ‘We’ve always done it that way’,” Martin said in the web posting. “Because with that mindset you don’t grow and innovate.”

Other changes to leadership include Hope Jarkowski, formerly the co-head of government relations at ICE and currently head of equities at NYSE, who will become its general counsel, replacing Elizabeth King.

(Updates with share performance in sixth paragraph.)

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