From the leaders of one historic Wall Street institution to the newly appointed chief of another: thank you.
That was the message six senior women at JPMorgan Chase had for Stacey Cunningham after she was named the first woman to run the New York Stock Exchange in its 226-year history.
Cunningham got her start in 1996 as a clerk on the floor of the exchange. She’ll succeed Thomas Farley on Friday, becoming the exchange’s 67th president. The JPMorgan executives, five of whom sit on the firm’s operating committee and another who heads equity capital markets, sent her a hand-signed letter in appreciation of her service as a role model to younger women.
“Thank you for inspiring the next generation of women to dream big,” wrote Marianne Lake, Mary Erdoes, Lori Beer, Stacey Friedman, Robin Leopold, and Liz Myers.
The New York Stock Exchange was founded in 1792 when two dozen stockbrokers who had been doing business around a Wall Street buttonwood tree signed an agreement and moved their trading indoors, according to the NYSE’s official history. JPMorgan traces its roots to 1799.
Here’s the letter the JPMorgan executives sent, on company letterhead: