Yet another one in the bag! Sharon Bowen has paid her dues putting in excellency service over the years and now, she’s getting all she deserves and yes, we love to see it.
Inclusion and diversity is taking centre stage, giving black well deserved black talents their rightful recognition.
Intercontinental Exchange Inc has named Finance and Securities Lawyer Sharon Bowen the next Chair of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). She makes history as the first black woman to attain the position.
Bowen has been a member of the board of directors of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE), NYSE’s parent company, since December 2017.
Previously she made history as the first African American to serve as Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
This comes on the heels of restructuring of leadership by ICE founder and CEO Jeff Sprecher to meet up with demands of the market and finance landscape.
“When a handful of colleagues and I founded ICE over twenty years ago, our simple idea was to make trading more automated and transparent, and that purpose anchored our original leaders as we grew exponentially, and their duties grew along with the firm. Now with a market capitalization of over $70 billion, and a substantially transformed company from our origins, it’s more important than ever to challenge our leaders to take on new tasks and acquire new skills as we serve a new and ever-evolving marketplace,” said Sprecher in a Dec. 6 letter.
Bowen joins Lynn Martin, the next NYSE president, Mark Wassersug, the new chief information officer for ICE, and Stuart Williams, new chief operating officer for ICE, they officially take up positions in 2022.
Recall in April, Bowen also became a member of Akamai Technologies Board of Directors. She was also previously named vice-chair of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation in 2010 by President Barack Obama and in 2014, she became the first African American to be appointed Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
A Virginia native, Bowen launched her career in 1982 as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell, later joining Latham as a senior corporate associate in 1988 and became a partner in January 1991.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Virginia, a Juric Doctor degree from Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, and a master’s degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern.
