Despite wearing many hats – not least tech entrepreneur, real estate investor, nurse practitioner and author of children’s books – Dr. Irene Okoronkwo-Obika was one of them.

The CEO and Co-founder of Afrinanny reveals that, while she was elated at being selected for the invitation-only Mentorship Circle program at the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, she was also plagued by self-doubt.

“I felt my company was too early on to be among seasoned entrepreneurs,” says the Texan native. “But I felt welcomed and eventually settled in with the help of the program.”

Our #NasdaqFam takes pride in making Nasdaq the leading company that it is, with respect for our diverse backgrounds and colleagues included. For our Nasdaq Pride series, we will be featuring members from the OPEN (Out Proud Employees of Nasdaq) and learn about how they are pushing for positive change for LGBTQ+ people in the workplace.

With the OPEN, Nasdaq aims to:

Mentorship matters.

Take the story of U.B..

Born to Panamanian immigrant parents in 1958, she was raised by a single mother in a New York City housing project. 

U.B. started out as an intern at an office technology company. Three strategically-selected mentors later and she would become the first Black woman to be appointed CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

U.B., otherwise known as Ursula Burns, is the former CEO and chairwoman of the very company she interned at - Xerox.

According to Burns, her mentors collectively instilled in her the belief that she was capable of achieving far more than she ever thought possible.

We are the home to Biotech because we committed to the industry from the very beginning. Our gateway to the capital markets allows researchers, scientists and business leaders to pioneer the possible every day—and we are proud to be with them at every step of that journey.

Jordan Saxe, Head of Healthcare Listings

Lauren Dillard, EVP and head of investment intelligence at Nasdaq, joined Cheddar to talk about the exchange's diversity report from about 20 percent of the firms within Nasdaq's eVestment database ecosystem for asset managers and investors. Findings showed that White men account for more than 55 percent of key roles, with Asian men accounting for the next largest group at just over 12 percent. Meanwhile, African American men filled less than 2 percent and less than 1 percent of African American women filled similar roles. Dillard discussed steps that the investment community might take toward improving diversity in leadership.

Great leaders have the insight to see what the right thing to do is, the skill to do it, and the courage to do it even when it is hard. When those three things come together, the impact a great leader can have and the number of lives they can touch are vast. In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with two phenomenal leaders who have completely upended, transformed, and positively impacted the culture of their respective organizations. As CEO of Anglo American, Cynthia Carroll was the first female CEO of a major mining organization and in 2008, Forbes listed her as the fifth most powerful woman in the world. In 2017 Frances Frei served as Senior Vice President of Uber, and radically changed the toxic culture into one the employees could be proud of. She is currently a Professor of Technology and Operations Management at Harvard Business School. “I was relentlessly optimistic and rigorous about the future, and I think if you have...

Our employees take pride in making Nasdaq the leading company that it is, with respect for our diverse backgrounds and colleagues included. Through The OPEN (Out Proud Employees of Nasdaq), we recognize the milestones that created a momentous global culture shift, known as Pride Month, which we celebrate all year long.

From the work of active community members on the frontline, spearing the Stonewall uprising of 1969, the National March on Washington of 1979, to AIDS activists demanding treatment, all were critical to advancing the movement. Courageous individuals like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Harvey Milk and Larry Kramer all helped lead LGBTQ+ efforts. We honor their memory by continuing to educate, elevate and engage with the LGBTQ+ community.

For our Nasdaq Pride series, we will be featuring members integral to The OPEN and learn about how they are pushing for positive change in the workplace.

Marcel Benson knows a thing or two about that.

Unhappy at work, Marcel decided to quit his high-flying consulting job on the spot, which resulted in the immediate breakdown of the relationship with his live-in girlfriend and the eventual loss of his home.

But he gained something priceless in the process: the knowledge that he was somehow on the right path. His intuition told him so. 

Marcel’s abandonment of a promising consulting career  was fueled by an unshakable belief that “time should be spent doing what you love.”

And Marcel has loved watches ever since he was a child.

Our Nasdaq employees take pride in making Nasdaq the leading company that it is, with respect for our diverse backgrounds and colleagues included. For our Nasdaq Pride series, we will be featuring members from the OPEN (Out Proud Employees of Nasdaq) and learn about how they are pushing for positive change for LGBTQ+ people in the workplace. With the OPEN, Nasdaq aims to:

As summer starts, we thought it was a perfect time to update our “Intern’s Guide to the Market Structure Galaxy.” This short introduction has plenty of links for interns looking to take a deeper dive into the topics mentioned.

Today we focus on market participants, IPOs, the rise of retail and automation. We also explain some of the core concepts about how markets work. Stay tuned for an “intern’s guide to trading” in the coming weeks.

Again, for those who have worked in the market for years, sit back, relax and enjoy the refresher—you never know when an intern might ask a question about the basics.

At Nasdaq, we are committed to catalyzing progress towards a more sustainable tomorrow. At the epicenter of the capital markets and technology, we’re uniquely positioned to lead the acceleration of ESG excellence by empowering our communities with strategic solutions that have measurable and lasting impact.

Leverage an easy-to-implement interface measuring the global sustainability effect of a portfolio and individual securities, allowing investors and managers access to the real-life effects of each investment, along with alternatives that may better suit an individual’s sustainability goals.

At Nasdaq, we are committed to advancing ESG initiatives. In addition to providing frequent and robust reporting on our ESG efforts and continuously working to identify emerging ESG trends, we encourage our employees to participate in our ESG initiatives and engage with our clients and stakeholders to pursue ESG-related opportunities.

Our strategic vision is to help companies and the investment community navigate and achieve ESG excellence through technology, data and marketplace solutions. We want to empower corporates and the investment community with technology and capital markets solutions that support transparency, reduce friction and drive impact on their decision-making process.

Lindz Amer is the founder and CEO of Queer Kid Creative, a multi-media production company spreading queer joy through queer-focused intersectional all-ages media. They write, produce, and co-host Queer Kid Stuff, an original LGBTQ+ educational webseries for all ages and supplementary educational resources. In this series, Lindz performs songs and stories for families. They also produce and host a recently launched, family-friendly podcast called Activist, You! focused on social justice wherein they interview kid & youth activists.

 

What does “entrepreneurship” mean to you? Lindz Amer: Entrepreneurship is so many things! For me it has been about taking ownership of my work and my passions and turning them into something that’s not only going to build a livelihood for myself, but also cultivate a community around the mission of everything I do and am trying to give to my audience.

How did your company come to be? LA: It has been a winding...

Our Nasdaq employees take pride in making Nasdaq the leading company that it is, with respect for our diverse backgrounds and colleagues included. For our Nasdaq Pride series, we will be featuring members from the OPEN (Out Proud Employees of Nasdaq) and learn about how they are pushing for positive change for LGBTQ+ people in the workplace. With the OPEN, Nasdaq aims to: