Fintech Woman of the Year Finalist: Lauran Dillard, Nasdaq
Given to a woman whose achievements and work in fintech-related areas of financial services have helped enhance the sector or raise its profile as a career for women. Through education, leadership, mentoring, coaching or acting as a role model. We spoke with Nasdaq's Lauren Dillard, Finalist in the Fintech Women of the Year Finovate Award Category about her journey in fintech and the work she loves.
Lauren Dillard: I joined Nasdaq in 2019, after an extensive career at The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm with $210 billion under management. While at Carlyle, I managed a great team across six international offices. That experience lent itself to preparing me to lead Nasdaq Investor Intelligence (formerly Global Information Services), one of the fastest growing divisions within Nasdaq.
Tell us about your work with Nasdaq?
Dillard: I truly believe that transparency across asset classes is necessary in opaque markets. Our goal in Investor Intelligence is to educate individuals and companies on how to make the right investment decisions by giving them the tools with our data and analytical sets. We believe that data should be a part of the tool set that everybody reviews and analyses before investing to help them make smarter choices around individual stocks, funds, sectors (ETFs) or Themes.
Part of this goal includes outreach to new areas where there is a need for increased technology and transparency outside of traditional public equity and options markets. We continually explore opportunities to deliver vital information, including areas such as real estate and private equity.
How did you become interested in financial services? Was there an opportunity or individual which sparked your interest?
Dillard: My work path has certainly not been linear. I began my career as a tax professional, which feels a world away from my current role at Nasdaq, but it was a great way to learn hard work and client service.
During my time at The Carlyle Group, I was fortunate for the opportunities provided, from beginning in tax, running the long term incentive programs, to working on the public listing. Ultimately, I had the opportunity to serve as the COO of the Investment Solutions division before running that division. That path ultimately led to joining Nasdaq. The common thread in my journey was continuous learning, problem solving, and saying yes to opportunities.
I believe very strongly in having mentors and sponsors, and in serving as both to others. This is especially important at times of great stress and volatility like we are experiencing now. I believe in having a “Personal Board of Directors,” your own squad that can advise you on opportunities and provide perspective during times of trouble. I am also a big advocate for coaching. The right coaches are critical in everyone’s career.
What industry trends are you seeing? Which Fiserv solutions are helping FIs address these?
Dillard: Going into the pandemic we saw the beginnings of a perfect storm in financial services—capital inflows to the market coupled with a shift in investor’s asset classes; all enabled by online brokers, providing accessibility at a fair price.
The pandemic turbo-charged these trends that had already been in play. Individual investors sought greater participation in the financial system. This was growing thanks to technology and competition; we saw a flurry of retail brokers eliminate commissions late last year. The COVID pandemic added new interest in retail as people saw opportunity in volatility, and working from home became more commonplace.
These changes came with challenges, and these challenges are right in our wheelhouse. Nasdaq was founded on the idea you don’t need to be in the same physical space to be part of the same community. We launched our Smart Investing Web portal to give individual investors resources for investing. We’ve also launched initiatives such as the NextGen Solutions that serve both smaller enterprises and those that serve the growing population of Main Street investors.