Exchange in Focus: Nasdaq Nordic and Baltic exchanges firmly support gender equality

8 March, 2018

On the International Women’s Day, more than 60 stock exchanges around the world participated in the “Ring the Bell for Gender Equality” initiative together with the United Nations partner organizations.

Nasdaq in the United States participated as usual, and this time it was accompanied by all seven Nasdaq Exchanges in the Nordic and Baltic markets: Nasdaq Stockholm, Nasdaq Copenhagen, Nasdaq Helsinki, Nasdaq Iceland, Nasdaq Riga, Nasdaq Vilnius and Nasdaq Tallinn.

“It was time to join our forces and come together to emphasize our commitment to gender equality and sustainable development in the finance industry also in our Nordic-Baltic region. Nordic countries are often seen as global front-runners in advancing equality, but there is still more to do. We need more actions and openness to improve diversity in top management and transparency on gender policies, practices and attitudes,” said Lauri Rosendahl, President of Nasdaq Nordic and Nasdaq Stockholm.

“Therefore, I am proud to announce that Nasdaq has recently signed up to several initiatives to foster diversity and inclusion both internally and externally. Just on the occasion of International Women’s Day, Nasdaq took its latest step to enhance its commitment to equal opportunity for women by signing the CEO Statement of Support for the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP). The Principles were signed by Adena Friedman, the President and CEO of Nasdaq.”

Other steps in Nasdaq’s engagement on diversity and inclusion issues include:

Organizational changes recently enabled Nasdaq to join the 30% Club, which is an organization committed to striving for at least 30% representation of women on boards in U.S. companies.

Nasdaq has signed the Parity Pledge, which requires companies to interview at least one qualified female candidate for every open position at the VP level and above.

The company is now a part of CECP, a CEO-based membership organization focused on creating a better world through business.

Nasdaq recently published a series of principles and policy statements on its website, covering human rights, diversity, inclusion, cultural values, and other related topics.

The company’s Women in Nasdaq (WIN) initiative was launched in 2014 and today has 650 members in 20 local chapters across its worldwide network of offices.