Stacey Cunningham has just broken the glass ceiling. For the first time in the New York Stock Exchange’s (NYSE) 226-year history, Cunningham will be the first woman to lead it.
Cunningham, currently NYSE’s chief operating officer, will succeed Thomas Farley as the NYSE’s 67th president on Friday, according to NPR.
“Since the moment I stepped onto the trading floor, the NYSE has always held a special place in my heart,” she wrote on Twitter in celebration. “I am humbled and honored to have the opportunity to lead this organization.”
Since the moment I stepped onto the trading floor, the @NYSE has always held a special place in my heart. I am humbled and honored to have the opportunity to lead this organization. pic.twitter.com/600GP34hZe
— Stacey Cunningham (@stacey_cunning) May 22, 2018
Her appointment to president of NYSE means two women will now be in the most powerful positions on Wall Street. Adena Friedman became NASDAQ CEO in January 2017, ABC News reports.
Cunningham started out her career at NYSE as a summer intern in 1994, NPR reports. She was studying industrial engineering at Lehigh University at the time.
When Cunningham started at NYSE, it was still overwhelmingly male, but she has pointed to Muriel Siebert at her strong inspiration for her career.
Siebert was the first woman to own a seat on the NYSE in 1967, according to NPR. The New York Times wrote that Siebert “was turned down by the first nine men she asked to sponsor her application before a 10th agreed.”
“It took 175 years for the first woman to become a member of the New York Stock Exchange. Muriel Siebert didn’t have an easy path, but she was ambitious and it was fantastic,” Cunningham said in a speech at the Tory Burch Embrace Ambition Summit in April. “When she was faced with obstacles she put her head down, she was quoted as saying, ‘I put my head down and charge.’ That was her DNA, so she fought for it and, ultimately, she prevailed. It was Dec. 28, 1967, when the ratio of men to women members of the New York Stock Exchange became 1,365 to 1.”
“I started my career on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange almost 25 years ago and it never occurred to me for a moment that perhaps that wasn’t an opportunity available to me as a woman,” Cunningham continued. “I didn’t think about it and it’s in large part because Muriel had already done that work … I didn’t wonder whether or not I belonged. Muriel Siebert may or may not have been thinking about anyone else at the time, but anytime you embrace ambition and you redraw the boundaries, you’re not just redefining them for yourself, you’re defining them for anyone that follows, and I thank her for that.”
During her speech at the Tory Burch Embrace Ambition Summit, Cunningham also spoke about the importance of diversity on corporate boards and encouraged women, and men, to fight for progress, ABC News reports.
Cunningham is also a fan of “Fearless Girl.”