How NYSE’s Lynn Martin wrote the code for success

Lynn Martin says her life changed forever the day her engineer father brought home a Commodore 64 – a popular PC in the 1980s. In my latest episode of #OnPurpose, she reflects on her early experiences with computer programming and how that led her to become President of the New York Stock Exchange Group.

“I always just gravitated toward trying to figure out how things work…. [A Commodore 64] just shows up at our house one day after school, and I said, ‘What’s that?’ My dad said, ‘It’s called a personal computer.’ I think I wasted a variety of summers playing video games. Then I started navigating and saying, okay, what else can this thing actually do.”

In college, she was one of only two females studying computer science, but the experience taught her an important lesson.

“You’re not always going to see yourself in the room, when you are having a debate or trying to get an answer correct or when you are having to defend a piece of code. It sort of helped me start to get my voice.”

Lynn began her career writing code. She was good at it but soon realized she preferred talking to humans over computers all day. That’s when she saw a job opening that seemed like the perfect fit.

“The markets had started to go electronic. I spotted an opportunity for a position where they needed someone to communicate with this new generation of traders as well as programmers who were coding these things called application programming interfaces. They weren’t looking for someone who was well versed in market; they were looking for someone who could have a conversation with a programmer about how to connect to a market.”

She’s been having productive conversations ever since on topics that impact nearly every aspect of the financial world, including artificial intelligence.

“There are two ways to look at AI. There’s a cost efficiency play and being very targeted at how you leverage AI to have quicker outcomes, better outcomes, more data-based outcomes…. And then there’s also the opportunity we spotted many years ago when we first put AI into production on our site, which was focused on adding transparency to markets – to the more opaque markets in the world….? to give transparency to what fair value is.”

For leaders, Lynn says transparency is key, especially during unpredictable times.

“The most important thing we can do at the moment is to stay open. People want to manage risk, particularly during volatile times. Our job as a market practitioner is to have the markets open, to have different opinions expressed. To not be biased, to not offer opinions. Our job is to add transparency in times of crisis.”

Coupled with the demands of the New York Stock Exchange are Lynn’s responsibilities as a wife and mother. How does she manage stress and find balance?

“The most important thing, particularly as a leader, is to make sure your mind is clear. You’ve got a lot of demands on your time. You’ve gotta make sure you take a minute for yourself to ensure you can have a clear thought and really think through an outcome as opposed to just being completely reactive. I tend to take time for myself, to have a good exercise routine. Cycling is the one thing that helps me clear my mind. It’s my own internal whiteboarding session.”

Thank you, Lynn, for being such a great role model for women and for all finance professionals who are working in such uncertain times.