Stacey Cunningham: New York Stock Exchange’s first female leader in 226 years

Cunningham first started at the NYSE as an intern in 1994 and she “loved the place right out of the gate”.

The New York Stock Exchange has named Stacey Cunningham as its new head – the first female in the history of the 226-year-old exchange to hold the position.
She is currently NYSE’s chief operating officer and will start working in her  new role from March 1. She succeeds Thomas Farley, who came to the NYSE in November 2013. Farley has announced he’s leaving to lead a new special-purpose acquisition company.
Cunningham first started at the NYSE as an intern in 1994. She told The Wall Street Journal that she “loved the place right out of the gate” and now she’s “excited to be running it”.
Cunningham, 43, began her career at the exchange almost 24 years ago as an intern. When she had joined, there were close to 40 women at the exchange, against nearly 1,000 men.
In various interviews, she acknowledged the influence of women who came into leadership roles before her. One of them was Muriel Siebert, who is considered to be a Wall Street legend, as she was the first woman to join the exchange as a trader in 1967.
“I was a woman trader on the floor, and I never thought about it – I never thought for a moment whether or not that could happen, and whether or not that was an opportunity available to me. And it’s because Muriel paved the way. I think it’s just really important to recognize that any time a woman pushes the boundaries and redefines the boundaries, she’s redefining them for everyone else that follows her,” she told WSJ.