2025 Global Leadership Summit: David Wicks & Elana Finn — Building Trust at Nasdaq

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Bells don’t build markets—trust does. In this episode, David Wicks, Vice President at Nasdaq, and Elana Finn, Events Marketing Specialist at Nasdaq, unpack how the exchange powers over 130 markets worldwide, monitors trading with SMARTS, and extends integrity through tools like Verafin, Axiom, and Calypso to protect against fraud, strengthen risk management, and streamline regulatory reporting. The result is a living infrastructure that helps founders turn preparation into durable public performance.

From policy to practice, we trace the arc from Project Revitalize to Project Elevate, highlighting why modernization matters: reducing regulatory friction, lowering the cost of being public, and clarifying the path to IPO for high-potential companies. David shares a reality check on IPO momentum—220+ listings across technology, AI infrastructure, healthcare, and financials—and what disciplined teams are doing differently to earn investor confidence amid geopolitics and shifting policies.

Elena takes us behind the scenes of Nasdaq’s event strategy—intimate dinners, off-site experiences, and MarketSite moments in Times Square—that transform introductions into real partnerships. These gatherings are high-signal rooms where private companies pressure-test governance, refine narratives, and connect with the right stakeholders before Day One.

We close with a simple playbook: start early, build your board and processes, engage with Nasdaq’s teams, and use curated events to accelerate learning and trust so your bell-ringing marks momentum, not a gamble.

If you’re exploring the public path or planning a high-impact event, subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of leadership, capital formation, and market integrity—and share this episode with a founder preparing for their Day One.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:10):
Gentlemen, the time has come.
The time has come.
I I would be remiss.
It would be I would be remiss innot explaining and expressing my
deepest gratitude on behalf ofIdea Gen, personally and
professionally.
To one of the greatest humanbeings that I've come across, a

(00:32):
dear friend and mentor.
And you know, what can you sayabout David Wicks?
David, David, come on up,please.
David, David, David, David isvice president here at the
NASDAQ.
You've seen him over the years.
He's you're in the most iconicphotos of at the Nasdaq.

(00:56):
And David, your support of IdeaGen will never be forgotten.
Let me just make that clear.
I wanted to throw that out therebefore this interview because
and and David recently gotmarried.
Let's give him a big hand here.
He's got a beautiful wife,Stephanie, and we want to, I
want to heartfeltcongratulations to you and
Stephanie for a life of blissforever.

(01:17):
Thank you.
I'd also like to, and would beremiss, if I didn't say the same
things for Elena Finn.
Elena, come on up, please.
Elena.
Elena is events marketingspecialist here at the NASDAQ
and is a believer in idea genlike most of you.
I mean, it's incredible.

(01:37):
And I love the fact that you allappreciate everything that we're
doing.
We bring cross-sector folkstogether talking about
leadership in this case todaywith a lot of NASDAQ listed
companies, like Microsoft, BrianGalaccia here today.
Let's give him a hand.
I know you guys like to seelisted companies.
And so I just want to say it'san honor and a privilege to be

(02:00):
here with you all today.
Thank you, John.
And to be able to truly saythank you.

SPEAKER_03 (02:06):
Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 (02:07):
Before we launch into our interview.
You're welcome.
Here we go.
Please.
And so with that, I know we gotall emotional, and we begin with
the gratitude.
I mean, how can I how can youexpress gratitude to two
incredible human beings that youknow believe in what you do?
And it's really hard toarticulate it.
But and I won't get emotionalabout it here.

(02:28):
But NASDAQ's a global leader infinancial markets.
David, how would you describethe Nasdaq and its mission?

SPEAKER_02 (02:36):
Yeah, so our mission is really to be the trusted
fabric of the world's financialsystem.
So it's pretty ambitious.
And I would say, how do we goabout doing that?
So currently we operate over 130exchanges, exchange technology
around the world.

(02:57):
And if I just even pause thereand take that in from Asia to
China to South America toMexico, people rely on our
technology to bring investors into provide liquid markets and
capital formation.

(03:17):
On top of that, we have astate-of-the-art trading system
called SMARTS that surveilsthose markets.
In 2021, we acquired a companycalled Verifin, which is
involved in helping protectfraud and AML for financial
institutions.

(03:39):
And then in 2023, we acquiredtwo companies, Axiom and
Calypso.
Calypso is more on the kind ofcash management, treasury risk
management.
Axiom is more again forfinancial institutions in
understanding their regulatoryreporting obligations across

(04:00):
different requirements aroundthe globe.
So I think if when you look atall of those together, it
creates this trust in when yousee NASDAQ, when you hear
NASDAQ, there's a level ofintegrity uh that comes with

(04:20):
that.

SPEAKER_01 (04:21):
And I think Brian would agree with Microsoft here
as a listed company.
Yes, absolutely.
And we love hosting.

unknown (04:30):
Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 (04:31):
And so I'd like to ask Elena now.
So your events marketingspecialist, look at today.
I mean, extraordinary whatyou've done and what you do.
Tell us a little bit about whatyour day looks like.
What is that?
I mean, you're constantlymoving, it's such a critical
role.

SPEAKER_03 (04:45):
No day is the same.
A lot of days here when we haveevents on site, we have a great
connection between our clientsand our hosts, like David.
And then I would say we also doa lot of our events off-site.
So for those, you know, the prepthat goes into making sure that
our clients feel heard andengaged on those off-site

(05:06):
experiences, it's really the dayto day.

SPEAKER_01 (05:09):
Incredible.
And I've seen it in action, andwe're about to see it now with
the closing door ceremony, so wecould not be more thrilled.
And NASDAQ has a history ofissuer advocacy for its members.
David, perhaps can you talk alittle bit about your efforts
here?

SPEAKER_02 (05:22):
Yeah, so you know, it really dates back to 2017,
and and when Adina became CEO,one of the first things she did
was something called ProjectRevitalize.
And what we saw was a trend inthe markets where the number of
public companies was going down,and the time that private
companies were going public wastaking longer and longer.

(05:45):
So what we found is that jobgrowth, job creation often
happens when a company goespublic and has that capital to
expand and invest.
So Project Revitalized waslaunched, and it was really a
blueprint for the financialmarkets.
So it dealt with ways tomodernize things.

(06:06):
And there were some, you know,certainly some wins around the
Jobs Act and reporting forsmaller companies and uh around
uh ISS in Glass Lewis.
COVID happened, and like allgood things, uh things got
sidetracked.
Last year we announced kind ofour next generation of that

(06:27):
revitalizing, uh, and we call itProject Elevate.
And Project Elevate again ismeant for how do we help bring
down the regulatory burdens, howdo we make it easier for private
companies to go public, and howdo we reduce the cost to be
public?
So it's a whole uh you can goonline and look at it.

(06:50):
Uh, if you just look at NASDAQProject Elevate, uh, you can see
kind of some of the areas thatwe're working in.

SPEAKER_01 (06:56):
And so just a quick follow-up to that, what are the
trends you're seeing among thesecompanies seeking to go public?
What is that trend line lookinglike right now?

SPEAKER_02 (07:04):
So I hosted a dinner last night, and I just I started
by saying, you know, on a goodyear, 140, 150 companies, NASDAQ
would be like, oh, that's youknow, that's a good healthy year
for IPOs.
When I asked the group, and itwas you know a group of about uh
16 people, I said, How many IPOsdo you think NASDAQ had?

(07:27):
So I'm not gonna ask this group,but think in your mind how many
we had.
It ranged from 10 to 70.
So maybe it's in the range thatyou all are thinking.
We've had over 220 IPOs to date,which is great.
So I think the trend uh isdefinitely where companies are
accessing public markets.

(07:48):
I think you know they'renavigating the kind of
geopolitical, the tariffsituation, and certainly things,
policy decisions, and thingslike that.
But the market is definitely onewhere we're seeing technology,
AI infrastructure, healthcare,uh, and even financials, where

(08:08):
they're you know tapping publicmarkets, which is great.
That's great.
That's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 (08:14):
Elena, events, they play such a critical role in the
work you all are doing here.
And it's about connectinginvestors and businesses, right?
So, how do these events andinitiatives support the
corporate growth and engagementin such a fast moving global
economy?

SPEAKER_03 (08:34):
Yeah, absolutely.
Like David mentioned, the dinnerthat he hosted last night was
something that I had planned.
So I think that really workingvery closely with our internal
stakeholders to provide aplatform that they can make
those connections with, whetherit's our listed companies or
companies that are looking to gopublic.

(08:54):
I think that there's greatopportunities with our retention
companies to sit down and tohave a dinner and to be able to
go over, explain those things,and ask those questions.
But we do also find a lot ofgreat engagement from our
off-site events and creatingthose really unique and far
beyond what the standardcorporate event would be.
And I think that those momentsresonate and create more of an

(09:18):
authentic connection.

SPEAKER_02 (09:21):
Got it.
And that's they're so powerful.
And I'll give you a perfectexample.
We held a climate week eventthis week, and one of our CEOs
reached out to me and said, Ohmy gosh, like I know you guys
are having this climate week,can I go?
And and that sense of communityand finding the purpose that
drives that CEO to want to behere is knows we're doing

(09:43):
something right.

SPEAKER_01 (09:44):
Exactly.
100%.
And so we're here talking aboutglobal leadership today.
And so I'd like to ask both ofyou what you you see, all these
global leaders, these companies,they're launching.
It took it took leadership toget there.
My gosh, everything it tookuntil they're listed is a
journey, as you all know.

(10:06):
What are those, what what arethe key elements of leadership
that would you that you wouldsay the thread that you've seen
that's been visible to you inthat journey and necessary?

SPEAKER_02 (10:20):
So I would say first and foremost, it's you know, I
look at the companies that werewith us last night.
It it is true grit sometimesjust to get through that life
cycle, right?
So NASDAQ just doesn't say,like, oh, we want to hug
Microsoft now that you're apublic company.
We want to be part of that lifecycle when a company is private,

(10:43):
assist them with growing bestpractices, growing their board,
growing what they thatinfrastructure they need for
that day when they becomepublic, and then help them on
that journey.
So I I think it's you know, it'sa relentless focus that when
these companies wake up everyday, they they are working to

(11:04):
build something great.
And you look back when Microsoftlisted, you know, from where you
were then to today, uh we'relike we're in awe, right?
Uh, and just a wonderfulpartnership and wonderful story.

SPEAKER_01 (11:20):
What a story.
What an incredible story.
And I know again, I've seen youin a lot of the photos.
Haven't changed at all, David.
And what a journey.
And so, what is your call toaction if for global leadership?
And for those, let's make itspecific about NASDAQ.
What is your call to action forthose looking to list in the
NASDAQ potentially?

SPEAKER_02 (11:41):
So I would say if you are looking to list, if you
are thinking about tapping thepublic markets, it's so
important to start before you,you know, the journey doesn't
start at the IPO.
The journey starts years before.
So the call to action would beengage, let us share, let us

(12:07):
help, let us, you know, get youin a position where on that day
one, uh, you know, it's it's awonderful experience.

SPEAKER_01 (12:19):
Incredible.
Incredible.
And Alena, you have the lastword here.
Uh, what is your call to action?
For those looking to join theNASDAQ to host events here to do
all the above.

SPEAKER_03 (12:31):
I would say for those looking to join and list
on NASDAQ, like David mentioned,to engage, we have so many great
opportunities to connect withprivate companies, both here at
MarketSite and at our off-siteevents.
I think that private companiestypically see so many
invitations coming in, and whilethey're prepping on their own,

(12:53):
you know, it's hard to find thattime, but to make that time,
make those connections andreally learn from all of the
great resources that we havehere, whether that's David or
Jay Heller, ahead of capitalmarkets.
I watch, you know, so manyprivate companies in awe of all
of the knowledge that he has toshare.
So I think first, you know, forthose looking to list on NASDAQ,

(13:15):
engage with us beforehand andfor those looking to host events
here, contact us.
Contact us, we're happy to chat.
And I think that you know,having events here, it's we're
in the heart of Times Square.
It's the crossroads ofcapitalism, and it's a great
spot to provide visibility,especially on our seven story

(13:36):
tower.

SPEAKER_01 (13:37):
You know, you could not have said it better.
I love it.
Well, thank you, thank you bothso very much.
Thank you for for your