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I'm Jason Kelly, I'm Alex Rodriguez, and we are here in New York. We're going to talk Nasdaq. The CEO of Nasdaq, Adina Friedman, is going to stop by tell us all about the deals that she's making, including in the world of sports.
She loves sports and she understands the cross between sports, entertainment and.
Culture, which is what it shows about.
And I actually think there were a little bit ahead of a curve because franchise values are going up at such a high rate that a lot of these conglomerates that people are building it may end up in the NASDAK, and I think she's prepared for it right.
Atlanta Braves. Atlanta Braves, they are publicly traded on the NASDAK, the only MLB team to be so you have to expect that there are going to be more such teams. And this idea of a sports eco system that is much bigger than the teams themselves. DraftKings are publicly traded on the Nasdaq, plus all the technology that's underneath all these sports teams, and as you say, access to capital is going to be massive around the world. Of sports coming up, the.
Public markers are there, they're waiting, and I believe Jason that a lot of teams they're watching very carefully to see this is maybe a possible outcome for them.
And what's interesting too, is Adina is a deal maker at her core. Nasdaq is in the business of deals. You know, a public listing is often one of the most important moments in a company's history. She's right there, she sees it all.
I think the audience is going to be very interested and surprised to see the scale of Nasdaq, how they make money, which she explained beautifully. But the other thing to remember is she's a role model and fascinating pivot from Nasdaq to CFO Carlisle back to CEO, right, and that's awesome. She's also black belt at taekwondo.
And a huge, huge Washington Commander's and we get into that as well. All right, coming up on the deal Adina Friedman. All right, So we like to start this show by having the guests introduce themselves. So tell us who you are and what you do.
I'm Adina Friedman, I'm the chair and CEO of NASDAC.
And so what do you do? What does that job entail well.
NASAC today is a global technology company that serves the entire financial ecosystem. So our exchanges are our foundation, and then on top of that, we have a whole suite of data and software solutions that serve the industry. So when I go to work every day, you know, I focus our team on how are we making sure that we're driving our strategy, how are we executing what are our clients asking us for? Are we meeting the needs?
We literally spend every minute of the day focusing on that and it's been fun and it's honestly it's a great, great team effort.
So what does a great day look like? And what does kind of a so so they look like?
Well, every day I feel like I have to earn my living. You know, I always said that every single day you have to make a different and it could
be small. So in the days that you make a bigger difference, where maybe you win a big deal, or you launch a new service, or you do something that's totally unique and different in the industry, like the first to create a new capability in trading or whatever it is, those are big days, fun exciting days, and then the days that are are the days where you get you go to the end of the day and you go, Okay, what exactly did I do to further the business today?
And do you sometimes have days like that too?
Is that sort of your mo was that your mentality coming in or was that something that you sort of learned along the way.
I got to NAZAC at nineteen ninety three is an intern and then made it so that I became a permanent employee after that, And I did come to work every single day with the attitude of I've got to make a difference every single day to earn my keep. Like they're giving me a they're giving me a paycheck, I better earn it. And I really did think about it every single day. I mean, it is actually what has driven me throughout my entire career.
Where does that come from? I mean, is that like upbringing, what's inside or underneath that? Yeah?
I do think that it comes from my family, my parents. My dad worked so hard his entire career. He spent his whole career at tiver Price. He was an investment manager. But he came from a very different background. His father was a missionary minister and he grew up in Portugal, and so he came to college on a scholarship, and he started with very little. And then my mom went back to law school when I was nine and became
a lawyer when I was eleven. So I got to see her launch her career and see how much effort it took to kind of come into the legal profession. And then she became the first female partner in her law firm. And they never took anything for granted. I mean, and I since I grew up seeing that we started with little, a little and ended up doing well. You know, I also saw the benefits of all that hard work over time too. So I think all of that really parlays into my work ethic and my attitude in life.
And so you're a kid, are you playing sports? Because you know, one of the commonalities I know we find when we're talking to top executives is they played sports. They have some interest or some dedication that is underneath this drive and discipline.
Right, So I did play sports, and it was interesting. When I was young, I wanted to do everything. I wanted to do gymnastics, and I wanted to do ballet, and I wanted to do karate, and I wanted to do tennis, and my mom was like, you just have to start to focus. So she let me try everything and then say, Okay, what is it that you really like? What do you want to go back to? So I ended up studying ballet for ten years and I played varsity tennis in my high school, but I did not
take it beyond high school. But those two things were very good at focusing me and making it so that I had that discipline of always striving for something bigger, striving for the win, and being very competitive.
All right, So this is going to be the toughest question before in the interview. I'm obsessed with this thing that I read about you.
You're a black belt in taekwondo, but Jason and I are white belts.
Some white belts I think less than that.
I feel like if we asked the wrong question, we're going to get dropped.
So careful, No, But I seriously like, how long did it take you to go from start to black belt?
And that's something that you think has helped in your career.
Yeah, actually I do think it has helped. It took me ten years to go from starting to getting my black belt, and I found that it was an incredible discipline. Honestly, that thing that is the hardest thing about taewondo is sparring. You know, the skills building was the fun, easy, not easy, but fun part for me. The sparring was the scary part for me. And one of the things I've always really focused on is getting through your fear. Fear has always been a driver for me. So how do you
get past your fear? How do you conquer that? And I cannot say that I've honestly ever conquered my fear sparring, but learning how to play offense and defense simultaneously is one of the most important things you can learn learn and sparring similar to like chess. You know, every offensive move there's a counter to that. So in sparring, if you focus too much on how I'm going to land that pick, how am I get that punch in, they could come and kick you in the gut in the
meantime and then you're done. So learning how to play offense and defense simultaneously, I think is the best thing I've been able to learn in terms of parlaying that into business.
You just settled a couple of things that I want to unpack. I mean, one is this idea of fear drives you tell us about that.
Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I've had moments, you know, in my life where my parents were always in the right way, pushing me out of the nest.
Right.
So when I was ten, as I said, I DA grew up in Portugal and my dad my parents just put me on a plane by myself to Portugal and said go find your grandparents to the other end, and you know, and when you're ten. I mean, I know a lot of kids have done that, but for me, that was a moment of fear.
I don't know, but.
You know, you get on that plane by yourself and you go like, yeah, I do this, and then you get to the other side and suddenly they're there and you have the experience and adventure of your life, you know, And it was an amazing thing. I'd only met them a couple times before, so it was just like opportunity. And I kept back on the plane on the way back and I'm like, I know what I'm doing. And so you learn to conquer fear. My parents are very good at putting me in situations where I had to
conquer fear. So I then learned how to fly when I was in college, and you have moments when you have to conquer fear. When you're learning how to fly, you kind of face a little bit bit of mortality and getting past that and making sure that you realize that you have to like, you have to figure this out. It's not like you can give up. You have to
figure out how to land the plane. And so those are the types of situations I put myself in up until I started work, and there that was when you know, there were moments in my career where I was offering an opportunity and I'd be like, hmm, how am I going to do that? But at the same time, you have to find I found fear a failure was what actually drove me to succeed.
Interesting.
It's interesting because thinking about someone like you, with a father who's one of the top investors in the world, and your mom who's.
A professional and a lawyer.
You would think someone like you would be equipped not to have imposter syndrome? Did you ever having position in professionally?
I had two moments in my career where I think the word I posture syndrome that wasn't really a term. That was used because I've been in the career of My career is over thirty years long now. But there was a moment when, at age thirty, I was given the opportunity to run one of the business divisions at NASSAC. They reoriented the business into three divisions and they asked me to head one of them. I was a little shocked. I was super excited, but I also sat there and
said to my boss, awesome, I can't wait. And then I went home to my husband. I was like, oh my god, how am I going to do this? And then you have to sit down and say, Okay, how am I going to do this? Who do I need to get around me? Who's really great at what they do and can help me teach me? And who I can learn from? And I think though that at that time, I thought, Okay, what do I know? Why do they choose me? You have to say they choose you for
a reason. So what have you done successfully that they want you to continue that success? What do I need to learn? And who's the best person who's going to be able to teach me that or people. Once you kind of get a path, you find a path forward, the fear is gone, right so and then you just have to make sure that you're performing against that path.
And a second time, I was running the data division and Bob re Reifeld, who was a CEO at the time, asked me to become the head of corporate strategy in addition to running the data business. And again I'd never done an M and A deal in my life, so and I was going to run M and A and so I went to a trusted friend and I said, hum, how is that? How exactly am I going to do this? And he just said, oh, Diana, it's just a bunch of powerpoints. You'll be fine. But I did use that
as a way to conquer my fear. And by the time I became CEO, I honestly was very ready for the job. I was very ready.
So one of the clear through lines so far in your story is a sense of competitiveness fair and where do you think that comes from?
I definitely am competitive. So I mean life is competitive. As humans, we are competitive, you know, And so there for healthy competition, keeping it in check, making sure you're using it to drive you in a positive direction, making sure it is a driver. I think it's a wonderful thing and I also think that if you only though focus on your competitors, you actually are not at all
reaching your highest height. So I say to the team and so, and I say this, in life like you have to have a vision of where you want to go, have a strategy and how you're going to get there, and engage your clients. They don't know exactly what you should be doing, but they do know what they need, and so how do you then parlay that need into a capability and how do you focus on them? Then
you look at your competitors. Then you look left and right and you say, okay, well, what are those competitors doing that you might want to take and say this is actually something I should be doing, Or how can I make sure that I leave them in the dust? You know, and I'm always staying ahead of them, but it's always in the context of a bigger vision and a bigger part of your life. I'm competitive, but I don't think it's a moniacal.
So along those lines of driving vision and strategy, talk to me a little bit about the difference when you're running in one of the corporate divisions versus the CEO. Is it driving vision strategy? And maybe recruiting, how would you describe you three or four main goals and duty to the CEO?
Taking it from the CEO perspective, the first thing is you really have to have a vision for where you want to go as a business. And that can be something that just comes solely from within you or if you're not quite sure where you need to go, engage the team, have the right people in the right seats to help you define that vision. But whether you're bringing it to the table or you're getting it from the team, once you have that vision, you have to get everyone
on board. So how do you make it so everyone relates to that vision and feels excited about it, And how do you know, kind of verbalize it in a way that motivates the team. The hard part, though, is executing against that vision. That's when you really got to roll those sleeves up and get engaged. You can't just
assume the team's going to figure that out. You have to get engaged, establish a rich, establish a cadence of driving that vision forward and engaging everyone along the way so that everyone's coming with you instead of dragging people behind you. Now, I learned all of those skills from running a business division because within Nasdaq, the division leaders do have a lot of autonomy, and certainly I grew
up with a lot of autonomy. My first boss was awesome to be like, here, here's a problem, can you go solver for me? Sure, I don't know how I'm going to solve this, but okay, I'll figure it out. And then he I come back and say, here you go. You know he was. He didn't sit there and tell me here are the ten steps you need to take to solve this problem, just go figure it out. So
I definitely had some good problem solving skills early. Then I was handed this data division first time ever we had a business called data and so setting a vision for what that was and learning those skills was part of running the division. Then I ran corporate strategy, which at the time was actually more of an M and a job. I think Bob Greifeld was awesome and he
created operational excellence. He really grew the business tremendously. His mantra was always good execute, ushing beta, great strategy all every day. And my view is one I have both. So if you have that great strategy and then you drive good, good or great execution, then you can even go further.
So let's take a beat on Bob Greifeldt because he becomes, I think, arguably the key mentor of your career.
I mean, so first of all, he was the most important mentor slash sponsor that I had in my career. And you know, Bob was and is in my life, like I mean, you know, we've known each other now for twenty years. I worked for him for eleven of
those years. I learned so much from him. He positioned me to be a winner, you know, he positioned me to grow and expand he was always willing to give feedback, you know, he he What I actually really liked by is he said, you know what you're good at, let me talk to you about what you can get better at. And I love that. I mean, how is I How was I going to learn if I just if you just sits there and blows, you know, sunshine at my face,
and that's help me. The very first thing, I remember, I had just taken the head of strategy job and I was having to negotiate an acquisition. But my negotiating experience up until then had been as a participant in this industry consortium where I having to face off against all our competitors every single day and deal with a lot of contention. And so I was a very defensive negotiator, and I was like, don't hold the line, you know,
that kind of orientation towards negotiation. And so he said, aDNA, you're a good at defense, but you got to start playing offense, like we got to actually get the deal done. You know, You've got to find a path to the finish line. And so that was his first thing. It
was so good, such good advice. And then the second one was when I became the CFO, and he said, this is the first time where you're not going to know everything, and so you're going to have to figure out, you know, how you're going to bring your team along and make sure that you know what you need to know, but that you're empowering your team. And so it was, you know, those are the types of things that he told me.
It's funny, jason A just describe this what she learned from mom and dad, but also a little bit of taekwondo. He said, to you, how to play office andy face exactly.
He was so good at cutting through the noise and seeing the things that mattered and he was excellent at that. So I think that we were good partners, you know, And when we were working on deals, I would work through all of the details of how to get it done, and he would always see the finish line, you know. So just I think that we were very compatible. And then I learned a lot from him, and he positioned it so that when I became CEO, I was ready.
You know.
He had done everything perfectly to position me to be the CEO. Came in as president, and then he gave me the present CEO job. He started not being as many meetings and oh a, Dina, you go figure that out, and yeah, you know, just stepping back and stepping back. And so two and a half years after that journey started, you know, he's like, Okay, you're ready. I had been at NAZAG for seventeen years. I had become the CFO.
I was two years into being CFO, and I was very happy and actually a headhunter called me.
Ah.
But at the time, you know, I'm working in New York, but my family and we're in the Washington, DC area, So I live in the DC area. I raised the kids in the DC area, and I was commuting up to New York every week, and they called and they said, there's this you know, private equity firm. They're interested in finding a CFO to help them go public. And I said, well, which one is it? And they said it's Carlisle and Carlisle is the largest, most successful private equity firm in
the Washington, DC area. It's a global brand, It's an amazing firm with great leadership, and of all of the jobs. Like I had obviously gotten calls from a lot of head hunters over time, I think any executives do. This was the only time I'd actually returned the call to say, yeah, I actually would be.
Willing to talk to them.
But my calculus was it was time for me to prove myself somewhere else. Could I actually be a successful elser. I needed to know that for myself, that competitive.
I was going to say this competition, this is this is running deep.
I wanted to learn about the other side of the of the financial world. You had to become an investor. My father is an investor, my brother runs a hedge funds, so I really wanted to understand that side of the financial industry. Had an opportunity to see a Phoe to take a company public, which is a unique opportunity. And I could live and work in the same city. So, you know, it just was the opportunity that was just meant for me at that time.
So what's that conversation like, to go and quit the only place you've ever worked.
It was very hard. Bob was amazing at it. He was amazing. He didn't say, oh, please stay. He said, Adana, this is a great opportunity for you. I think it's a great opportunity for you to learn and expand and good luck. You know, he was great.
Ad in his mind that he was going to get you back.
No, really, I mean I don't know. I guess I don't know. I don't know. I did not have in my mind that I would come back. Really, No, when you make a decision like that, if that's it, you've got to look at it. That's a ten year decision. Yeah, if you're going to commit to a company, you better be ready to commit for a long time. That role in particular, and I loved it. I mean, it was a really great opportunity.
So when you think about a pivot like that, I mean it's like you're going from red Sox of the Yankees. Two great organizations, right, But can you talk a little bit about the differences in culture, strategy, work, ethic, all the stuff that we that you have to do with as a high level employee.
That was what was so interesting. It was the cultural difference because that only worked in one place. Now, while Nazege had several iterations of its existence, it was very much a pretty singular culture, command and control culture, a lot of focus on the top decision makers, and Carlisle I would call it a collaborative culture because it's a partnership.
So you have one hundred partners in a firm and three founders, and of course there's a lot of decision making that happens with the three founders, but there's also a diffusion of decision making and empowerment across one hundred partners who are all owners in this business private company. So very different culture, and I have to say I
like elements of both cultures. I think that in a company like Nasdak, critical infrastructure provider to the financial industry in the economy, you have to make decisions fast, and you have to make very concrete decisions. So command and control and that whole, that whole ethos I think is actually an important part of the culture. But the collaboration comes from I can't just sit in the top corner office and decide what to do. I have to engage
the team and make sure we're bringing people along. And while decision making can be slower, you ultimately through that debate you get to hopefully a better decision. So I do think that we've been trying to infuse both of those back into Nasdaq. So when it came back to NASDAK, having had that experience, like you know, we can do this a little differently. We can bring more opinions in the room but still move fast, and that's what we've been focused on.
You know, given that we are here on the deal, you had been doing some deals obviously, so you had been in that M and a role at NASDA prior to Carlo or do I have an yes. So then you go into a business that the deal's the thing, I mean literally that is the business of that. What did you learn about deal making there that maybe sort of elevated or accelerated that part of your resume or skill set.
Yeah, well it was interesting because when you buy a company as a corporate you have to have a forever thesis on that company that you're buying. Yea, I mean you're infusing it into your organization and you're becoming a different organization and you're going to carry yourself forward differently. When you're buying a deal as a private equity firm, it's all about the exit. So I'm coming in. What can I do over a very defined period of time to reshape this company? And what is my exit? That's
what I learned. The most important thing in the investment committee process is there an incredible focus on the exit as they're making the decision to enter. And that's a very different orientation, a very different way of thinking about driving value and return.
Right.
But I also got very comfortable with this thesis of I R R, EMOIC and these words that are underpining on private equity world, and I was able to bring that back into Nasdaq. So thinking about the return on.
Every deal in return, yes, multiple of invested capital.
Sorry about that, it's.
Like going back to my private equity days. I was like, oh, do I have this because we mostly talk about like RBI anyway, Sorry, yeah.
No, that's right.
Now.
To translate that back into a corporate m and A, you think about instead of multiple of invested capital because that assumes an exit, you think about return on invested capital, and you think about the overall return that you're delivering over time in addition to the strategic value you're creating. See that's the thesis within corporate m and A. That's so different. Thepe is the strategic side.
All right, So you come back to Nasdak and what is that decision? Like, what's in your head at that moment.
By the time that Bob and I started talking about coming back to Naszak, he was starting to think about success. But you know, he wasn't ready, but he was thinking about it. And he had offered to have me come back as president of NAASAX. So super compelling.
Right.
So I'd had a great experience at Carlisle working with them to go public, helping them maturize a public company, and then he called and I think that at the time I realized I like being a CFO, but I like being a business owner better. I really love clients. I love working for them, I love working with them. I love defining the future, pressure of the P and L, the competition and having that as my every day was. Really I missed that a lot. Being a CFO is
both being a risk manager and a risk taker simultaneously. Yeah, you know, I really enjoyed being the risk taker with someone helping me manage the risk of thing.
Is really like a cool through line that your whole career. I mean, you like that balance, I do.
I really like the balance, And I have to say, I love the pressure of the P and L and I love the pressure that the clients bring to you to make sure that you're always triving to be better. Right, And so he offered the opportunity to run all of the business units except for the trading division. It was a really smart decision because trading is an amazing business and it's a fascinating part of the business. But it's what I call it, you can be a little bit
of a rabbit hole. It's so fascinating, it's so intricate, and it's all encompassing. But we had grown to do other things, and so how do we make sure that we're really honestly focusing our capital allocation and our decision making on driving the growth of the rest of the business. So he asked me to come in and be that person. And then about a year and a half in then he asked if I would be the COO, which then meant encompassing all the businesses. So and then a year
after that I became the CEO. But the decision was again I was running towards something I always say to people as you're going through their career, don't run away from things, run towards them. So if you're unhappy where you are, don't just take the first thing comes along. Really focus on what's going to make you happy, what's going to get you excited, what's to get up every day and find that before you before you just jump ship.
And I was very happy where I was at Carlisle, but this was an opportunity to do something that I'd always wanted to be able to do and to have the opportunity altimate to be the CEO, and that moment I knew that that was an opportunity.
Yeah.
So for someone that hasn't really been in business or doesn't understand what NASAC does, how does a name iss terms, How does NASAK make money?
So we have three divisions within Nasdaq. We have our Markets division, which is trading, so we make money as an exchange operator. We take a tiny little bit of every share traded or every option contract traded, and that makes actually generates about a billion dollars of revenue a year, somewhere in that range. And then we have a lot of services we offer corporates who list on NASSAC and
investors who invest, you know, in the capital markets. Generally we have the listing's business and then a whole suite of capabilities that help the corporates have better relationships with investors, like IR and governance, so those are kind of part of our transparency suite in our capital access platforms business. And then on the flip side with investors, we help them make smarter acid allocation decisions. And then we create
investable products for our index business. So that whole collection of capabilities is about one was pro former for twenty three about one twenty eight billion dollars. And then the third part of our business is our fintech division, which is where we provide a whole suite of software that really power the capital markets around the world and provide a complete suite of risk management technology to broker dealers
and banks. And that's about a billion and a half dollars of revenue and that's really softwares.
And so you come back and it seems like that part of what you do as the CEO, you start to be a bit more aggressive in terms of, all right, how do we build this and grow this faster? Is that a fair assessment?
We were actually pretty aggressive in M and A under Bob's tenure, but I did take a different tack to it. So I kind of came back and I said, Okay, we are operationally excellent, and we have this amazing foundational exchange business with some a suite of services around it. When I went out to talk to the clients, let's hear from the clients, because everything I just mentioned to you, we didn't have all of that when I came back. So we were a niche provider of software to portions
of the broker dealer community in an exchange community. We had capabilities offering to the corporates that some of which were highly strategic, someone which were not, and we didn't actually have a deep relationship with the investment community. So we sat down and said, Okay, what do we want
to become in the next ten years. What are the technology trends that are going to drive our industry forward in the next ten years, and where are our clients, what are the trends that are driving our client needs over the next ten years. And if we look at that and we say, okay, then therefore, what do we need to become as a provider of capabilities in order to be able to meet our vision. We are a
technology company that's serving the world's financial system. We want to be the trusted fabric of the world's financial system.
And when you are talking about clients, you're talking about the big financial institutions mostly in this case.
So actually we look at as corporates investment managers, and then the banks, brokers and fmis. Fmis are financial market intermediaries like or changes. I know, I'm an acronym, so it's really kind of those three constituents. And so we actually undertook a strategy to say, okay, we have to if we want, if we are a technology company, how are we going to drive ourselves as a technology company. We're going to rewrite our software and modernize our tech
and we're going to embrace cloud. And we have done that. We have taken all of our solutions to cloud. We're going to be an agile technology development organization. So we're going to bring agile and propagate that across the whole company. We're going to start to measure ourselves in what I'll call technology oriented measures KPIs and measurements like annualize yourcurring revenue.
We do one of those, and we want to make sure though we're doing all of that in the context of delivering critical systems to our clients in ways that are and better than anyone else.
You know.
In the process of doing that, what I found when I got back to NASAC is great foundation critical infrastructure, very good operational excellence. But we wanted to drive i would say, more of an innovative growth spirit into the organization. So you start, actually, we had to focus first on organic growth. How do we get that organic growth engine going. How do we think more deeply about our clients and our capabilities, How do we modernize what we're doing for
them and get that engine going really well? Then we can start to think about what does that mean in terms of how we can expand our selves remina. So we kind of took it a little bit of a different tech if that makes.
Sense, And I mean I think one of the things that is most fascinating to me, again in the construct of the deal is your businesses deals. I mean, yes, you're you're doing a lot of things with clients and the fabric of the financial system, etc. But I would bet that most people listening or watching they know the NASAC is like, oh, it's traded on the Nasdaq, you know. Or they've walked through Times Square and they've been like, whoa, okay NASDAC, or they've seen people, you know, ringing the
opening or closing bell. What's fascinating to me and Alex and I have talked about this is you are often present for one of the most meaningful moments in a company's life, one of the most you know, catalytic moments. Tell us about that and sort of how Nazak sort of fits into that narrative for a company.
Well, it is the most amazing part of our business to be able to be there and to help define the best moment or the most important moment in a company's life. You know, it's just this amazing thing like who gets to have that? You know, and you realize every day, know, you have this great opportunity to watch a company transform and help them transform and then have
this moment when you get to celebrate that transformation. And then when I go to their offices years later, I still see the picture from the market site on their desk or on their wall or in their you know, employee book or whatever it is. It is like this defining moment in their history and their lives at both personal lives and professional lives, and we get to be a part of that. And it's pretty amazing. And that is that part of the business is this forever opportunity.
Like that.
Part of the business is constant deals. As you said, it's a constant flow of deals and it defines our brand. You know, we've got the most innovative companies in the world listed on NATASDAK, so everyone therefore looks to us and says, you're an innovator. So we get that great halo. We decided we have to be an innovator. Like if we have the halo, let's be an innovator. And that's what actually I used to drive the business forward and
really get that innovation engine going. Inside of Nasdaq. We also get to work with all these great companies or listed on Nasdaq, so we have these deep relationships and we get to work with you know, the Aws's and the Microsofts and the Googles and the in videos and the Intel's of the world, and we have this incredible ability to bring them in as partners and work and they help they help us.
So when I think about Nasdaq, it sounds like you're there to celebrate a championship almost daily for these companies. I mean, this is their championship, right and talking about championships, Atlanta Braves, Yeah, Bright, it's fascinating team, great, great front office. They built an incredible compound around that stadium. Talk to us about that process and how rewarding was to see the Braves not only go public, but we continue to be very successful and listed on the nasa and.
They're listed on the NASAQ. We were so excited when Liberty Media decided to basically take that company and that business public and listened on NASAQ, because of course we had the chance then to use all of our facilities in Times Square to have this great moment for the Braves franchise, for Liberty Media and everyone. But what's really cool about having a sports team be public is that it allows the team to engage the fans in a totally different way. The fans have an opportunity to become
owners in a company that is their team. And so it's been fascinating. And I think that first of all, it's an incredibly well run organization. As you said, it has a real estate armed to it too, so there's a whole development that goes around the stadium that's important to the franchise value. And you also have this, I mean, it's one of the best performing teams you know in sports and so and recognizable brands and they've done a
fantastic job of driving the brand. So to have this great this great team choose to do it like a team in a position of strength to say, you know what, we're going to make our stock available to everyone is just fantastic. I think it does change the notion of what teams can become as as value creators and investable assets. And so it's it's really cool.
So let's stick into that because I mean, it is a seminal moment. I mean, you know, I'm sitting here next to a sports team owner who knows a lot about, you know, what it means to own a team, what the opportunities for value are within you know, within sports ownership, as you've said, a lot of your job is looking around the corner to see where this is going, Where is this going, Where is this going? When it comes to sports.
Well, we've been focused, very focused on what I call the sports economy, and we've talked about this, this intersection of entertainment, right culture and sports and sports is a huge business. And it's not just the teams, it's everything around the teams. It's it's the merchandise. Of course, the
team values all the entertainment that comes from sports. And then on top of that you also have sports betting, you know, like a whole new industry that's kind of popped up on the back of sports and become a.
Really big beast in the media component.
And all the media. So I look at it. Watch the effect that Drive to Survive had on viewership of F one in the United States, you know, or All or Nothing, the Amazon Prime show on the Premier League, and then Barclay's sponsoring the Premier League into Onto TV every Saturday. Trust me, I wake up every Saturday and
listen to the roaring of the Premier League crowd. Yes, the Tottenham Hotspers yeah, And so the ability to bring it into the living room, to make it so that it's not just the team that you're following, but you know, the athletes, they become human they have this and social media of course has had a huge impact on this too. They become humanized and you want to be them and you want to learn their routines and understanding what it really takes to be that elite athlete, and it makes
it so much more accessible. Well, that's the entertainment side or the media side of it that has blown up the value of the franchise values of these teams and these these organizations. What that means though, is that individuals are going to have a really hard time being the owners of these teams going forward, Like meaning a single person as an owner of a team with the franchise values getting as big as they are is harder and harder.
So you're starting to see more professional investors coming in, starting with private equity and that type of ownership base, but also public equity. You know, you're starting to see the opportunity. You have a tracking stock and f one all listed on nassex for Liberty media too, and so you have all these opportunities now to be engaged in sports and new ways.
Play that out, Like, what what does that mean for the future of sports? We know you a little bit. You're a sports fan. You know you engage just like we do with your favorite teams, as we do with ours. How does that fundamentally change the business? You see what happens when when companies go public, So what's going to happen here in your instamation?
Yeah, So, first of all, I think it'll create this massive escalation of value. And because the more you get people engaged in different ways with a franchise, as we saw even just a sorts betting, the more you get engaged, the more value that's creative for the franchise. Right, So it's not just seats, it's all the merchandise, it's the TV rights, it's the globalization, it's all the media that
comes around it and the licensing values that come. And so if you have new ways to engage as and now as an owner, the potential for you to be an owner of a team like Green Bay Packers. You know that the fans are owners, it's not public, but that changes the relationship that the fans have with the team. So then it just feeds on itself, and I think it becomes this what I call virtual cycle, right, And I think now you're seeing women's sports coming into and
you know, women's sports. I say that we've gone from having a moment to having a movement in women's sports.
You know.
I think in the last few years they finally had a moment of everyone realizing it's a great product, it's a great viewer experience. And now they have this movement of being able to escalate franchise values using social media and broad based media, using ownership as a way to engage in new ways. So I think that if I were to roll the roll things for ten years, I think you're going to see teams in multiple sports being public.
I think certainly you're going to see maybe even it changes in the structures of these leagues and organizations to make it so that unlocks more value and it brings more professional people into the mix, and maybe different ownership bases, Like you know, there's certain member owned organizations still there. We used to be a member owned organization. It was
definitely not something that maximized value. And then I also think you're going to get more and more people around the world engaged in sports and that I think that's the one thing that's bringing us together.
If money wasn't an issue, you had all the money in the world, and you can be a general partner to one team, and one team only here or around the world. What team would that be?
Well, I have to pick my favorite team, which is the Commander's Washington coach course.
Now, Josh Parris a composition that'll be twelve billion.
Yeah, I mean we moved to Washington out of my husband moved to Washington out of school, specifically because they were called the Redskins at the time of it. Specifically because we wanted to be season ticket holders the rest of you, no kidding.
Yeah, I think, like us, you look at sports through a business lens. I mean, not just as a potential listing. But help us understand. You've talked a little bit about this, but like as you think of the Commanders, or what's happening in Major League Baseball, or what's happening in the in the Premier League, like when your business brain kicks in, Oh yeah, like, what are you seeing there? That can help explain what we're seeing right now.
Well, first of all, it's funny that you say that, because every time I watch any game, I look at all the advertising right and it drives my kids crazy, Like, just focus on the game, mom. I'm like, you have a look at that sponsorship. Why do you think they sponsored?
So?
I do actually think about the business of sports all the time, you know. When I think about the business sports, and we could take maybe the Commanders. I mean, you've got this, what I think is an undervalued asset. Yes, they bought it for a lot of money, but it's an asset that if they invest in it, they're going to be able to create a lot of value. And you've got the stadium, You've got the actual team itself that you have to focus on making it the best
team in the sport. You have all the merchandise that that that virtuous cycle then drives merchandise sales, It drives licenses, you know, media licenses, and might get an interest from a show that wants to do you know, a feature
on you. It drives the athletes get more value out of that, and then ultimately the fan base just gets a better and more complete experience that then draws them in and makes them bigger fans, and then they buy more during merchandise and then they go to more games, and they watch more of the shows, and they want and it just creates this incredible virtuous flywheel that I think in you know, we're just seeing the beginning of it, right because these teams in these leagues have gone from
being super private, individual owned to starting to bring professional money in with a return orientation, an investment orientation, a real estate orientation, you know of licensing orientation. And it's just I think it's going to change. I think it's going to continue to change, it evolve in a great way.
What will be your team my team partner leaving Bloomberg? I mean I would buy I would actually buy.
A women's sports team. Which one you wouldn't buy?
The Liberty?
Probably Vegas because we want to go.
To Well what's interesting is Liberty. I mean Liberty is one of the is one of the highest valued teams. Yeah you hit this one. Yes, I mean I might go in for an expansion team.
Okay, Oh that's a great idea team that's like a creator, right exactly. Yeah, you're a builder, You're a builder.
Yeah.
Well, I mean also I mean if you think about I mean, the numbers in the NWSL are fascinating, right, So will Obey and Bob Iger are friends. Like they just you know, bought Angel City. They did two hundred and fifty million dollars valuation, highest valuation ever paid for a women's sports franchise globally.
But what was it worth just a few years ago to two million?
Two million?
I went from two million to two hundred and fifty million, right, But that's what I mean is that with women's sports, it's gone from having a moment to being a movement, right and you're seeing these franchise values really but they're still so they're still affordable at the individual level, you know, at the super wealthy, but you know, you're still able to shape an entire league right now, so you're a builder.
I like that, I think as well. And also, I mean you see it with the links at WNBA, and you know what's happening there in terms of like an explosion of value given more media exposure, fans engaging.
It is a movement and it has moving fast.
And what's underpinning it is a great product. I mean, when you go to a women's basketball game, it's a great game. And I mean I watched every the NCAA tournament was on our TV the entire time the women's NC Double Vy was on more than the men's was in March, and actually the women's Olympic basketball, we watched that as much as, if not more than we watch the men and just because it's a really great product. Now, one woman told me recently, I hadn't thought about this.
Title nine was created essentially fifty years ago or somewhere like right around when you know, I was little. But we've had fifty years of investment in in sports now where women have grown up and getting better and better, coaching, more resources, more focus. And so now you've got this flywheel effect of having all these great athletes coming out of college and coming out of high school and college. And but that machinery had to turn take time, some
time to turn on. It's on. So now you've got you know, and we have globally look at the Women's World Cup, right, you know, we actually have competition around the world. So you've got these amazing, amazing products, and now you've got really interesting owners coming in, right, You've got media coming in, and I think that it's that virtuous flywheel is just getting started.
You recently gathered a group around women's sports at the NASDAQ to sort of dig into this. I mean that feels almost like venture investing, to say, you know, like you're trying to get to get in early. How and why do you do that sort of thing, Like what's the business case?
Then?
Yeah, no, it's a great question. So the listing's business is a relationship business, yeah, and it is. While it ultimately ends up in a transaction of someone going public, you know, it all is underpinned by trust and relationships. So I think that we work very hard to develop relationships with companies very early in their life, with industries
as they're coming up. So with sports, you know, we are seeing this like we're on the cusp of a different era of sports as a business, right, and so we're engaging with every element of the sports economy, including women in sports. That dinner wasn't just about women's sports, but it was about women in sports, women who are engaged. But so we had executives from men's leagues and women's leagues, and agents and it was and teams and everything else to come together and say, Okay, what can we do
to really continue to elevate that product? And so how do we make it so that that virtuous cycle gets accelerated. But then also just getting people connected, getting us to have relationships with women executives and men's sports as well.
Right, well, because I mean I think it's fair to say that throughout your career. You know this as an investor as well. I mean part of this is it is very basic access to capital, right, I mean, and that you have that exactly.
I look at everything through a business lens. So this these are amazing businesses, So how do we get them better access to capital? Growing and expand how do you get more parts of the ecosystem engaged? And access to capital is the is the driver of every economy. And these are very entrepreneurial companies, by the way, and so also seeing themselves not as a league or a team,
but as a company. It's an entrepreneurial company. So helping them engage and learn from each other is also another thing we like to do.
I mean, let's be honest and enlightened self interest, right, you want them to list on.
The We always say it's long term legion, right.
Long term that's good? All right, So this is we're going to move to the lightning round now, Okay, so you got to keep it tight. We're going to go through and we'll just bounce back and forth. All right, what's one word to just your deal making style?
Persistent?
What's more important? Instincts or data?
Data?
What's the hardest part of deal making the beginning of the middle.
Or the close?
Definitely the clothes.
What's the best piece of advice you've ever received on a deal or a business?
Making sure that you're focusing on the clothes, Like, how do you get to the close? You got to focus on how to get to the close.
I remember Henry Kravis once said, don't congratulate me when I buy a company, congratulate me when I sell it.
See, it's all about the exit for them, not for us.
Right, what's the worst advice you've ever been given?
I think that I did get advice once that you have to always balance price and strategy. Can I say it that way? But the worst advice was don't worry about the price. They'll figure it. You'll figure that out later. You've got to focus on price and strategy, right, You got to look at the financials and the strategic side.
All right, So what's your hype song before you go into a big meeting or negotiation.
Well, I really I have a couple. But I listened to an actually a playlist, a girl's anthem playlist, and so I it's all about like pump me up songs from women.
Give me one artist that's in that list?
One artist? Oh gosh, well Beyonce is in that list for sure.
If you can only watch one sport for the rest of your life, only one, what is it?
Football?
Football?
Sorry, Alex, I think this one's going to be easy. What team do you want to see win the championship more than anything?
Definitely the Commanders.
Yeah. Do you have a fun fact about yourself that your colleagues would be surprised to hear.
Some people know this, but not everyone. But when I was in college, I learned how to fly. Yeah, why I really want For a while, I wanted to be a fighter pilot until I found out that at the time when I was growing up, women weren't able to be fire pilots. So but I but I decided that I really loved if I could be any animal, I would be a bird. Let me just say it that way. So I you know, I love being able to look down and see the world from up above.
Well, this has been really fun for us. Thank you so much for spending some time being so candid and thoughtful.
Thank you great, thank you, thank you.
The Deal is a production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals. The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly. Our producers are Annamazarakus, Stacey Wong, and Lizzie Phillip. Original music and engineering by Blake Maples. Our managing editor is David E.
Ravella.
Our executive producers are Jason Kelly, Brendan Francis Newnham, Jordan Opplinger, Trey Shallowhorn, Kyle Kramer, Andrew Barden, Kelly Laferrier, and Ashley Hoenig. Sage Bauman is our head of podcasts, additional support from Rachel Scaramazzino and Elena Los Angeles. Joshua Devaux is our director of photography. Rubob Shakir is our creative director. Art direction is from Jacqueline Kessler. Casting by Julia Manns. Our associate producer is Natasha Abelard. Camera operation by Jesse Ridner,
Tascine Rabbi and Suma Hussain. Our gaffer is Julia Goweski, and our grip is Megan Miller. Our production assistant is Gabriella Demataes. Alex Diacanis is our video editor. Listen to the Deal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also tune into the video Companion on Bloomberg Originals and on Bloomberg TV. Thanks for listening.