2 hours ago - Business

The women who run the markets

Emily Peck

Lynne Fitzpatrick, president and chief financial officer of CME Group, looking to her right at a conference. — Lynne Fitzpatrick, president and chief financial officer of CME Group. Photo: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

CME Group has named Lynne Fitzpatrick as its next CEO, the latest woman to nab a leading role atop a major financial exchange.

Why it matters: Women now run most of the country's financial plumbing — surprising, given that the rest of the finance industry's leadership continues to be male-dominated.

Driving the news: Fitzpatrick, who is currently president and CFO of the derivatives exchange, takes over from Terry Duffy. He'll officially step down from CEO and into the chair role early next year.

The rest of the women leaders:

Adena Friedman, Nasdaq's CEO, became the first woman to head a major global stock exchange when she took the role in 2017. (She became chair in 2023.)
Lynn Martin, president of the NYSE since 2022.
Martina Cheung, CEO of S&P Global.
Fiona Bassett has been CEO of FTSE Russell since 2023.

That leaves: MSCI. Henry Fernandez has led the firm since 1998. And Cboe, a major options powerhouse, is run by Craig Donohue. And, for the record, ICE owns the NYSE and is run by a guy named Jeff Sprecher.

Between the lines: Women now run the operational guts of the markets, but men are still mostly at the helm in banking, deal-making, trading and other highly lucrative parts of the finance industry.

Zoom in: The share of women in top roles at financial institutions — including commercial banks, central banks, and major funds — hit 19% in 2026, per a report that looked at 335 organizations earlier this year.

The bottom line: CME's next CEO is a woman, and she'll be in good company.

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The women who run the markets

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