Towson grad climbs the ladder from secretary to VP at Nasdaq

By Kacie Haines
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer

Stacie Swanstrom met with her supervisor at the start of her career at Nasdaq in 1992 and was told she wouldn’t amount to anything higher than a secretary.

Today, the 48-year-old Towson University graduate stands as the executive vice president of corporate solutions at the multi-billion-dollar stock exchange.

“I was having a career session with one of my bosses in human resources and she told me, ‘Oh, you can be a secretary,’” Swanstrom said.  “I told myself that I will prove this woman wrong and I will be at her level or higher before she retires.  Sure enough I made it to her level.”

While sitting in Nasdaq boardrooms with graduates from MIT, Vanderbilt, and Columbia, Swanstrom sits proudly with her degree from Towson University.

“Towson was a great experience for me. It helped me get prepared for the business world, but it is also the beginning,” said Swanstrom, who graduated in 1992.  “It was a great foundation, and I’m alongside people from a number of high profile schools, yet we all have one mission at Nasdaq.”

Towson was the right school for Swanstrom.  She had the ability to learn how to be a working adult while still having some fun along the way.

“The whole experience of college was awesome. I had such a great time at Towson,” she said.  “I might have been a little distracted my first part of college, but I stayed focused on my academics.”

Swanstrom, who is originally from Camp Springs, Maryland, came out of Towson’s graduation determined to get a job.  She received an offer at the Arthur Anderson accounting firm as an administrator for one of the company’s partners.

“I had an intense need for some reason, to get a job right away,” she said.  “I thought if I could just get in I would could move my way up.”

She wasn’t there for long.  Her boss helped move to where she now works at NASDAQ, but it wasn’t what she was looking for.

The job was in human resources.

“My friend told me there was an opening at Nasdaq in human resources, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do,” she said.  “Again, I thought if I can just get in somewhere I could work my way up, so I took the job in HR.”

Swanstrom knew the right people at Nasdaq and worked her way up the ladder.  She attributes working hard, believing in yourself, and taking some risks helped her get where she is now.

“As time went on I took another administrative job and that was the beginning,” Swanstrom said.  “Even though it wasn’t where I wanted to be, I still learned so much.  If I was strict on only getting a marketing job, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

John Jacobs, who was the executive vice president at Nasdaq when Swanstrom started there, said he always knew she was going to be successful.

“Stacie has always been determined.  If she couldn’t get it done one way she made sure that she got it done in another way,” Jacobs said.  “She has never once shied away from a challenge. If there was a problem she would find the solution no matter what.”

After over 20 years with Nasdaq, she is still flying around the world, ringing the Nasdaq market bell multiple times, and giving talks at the business school at Georgetown University.

“We have over 17,000 clients and about 1,500 employees in 50 countries and the most exciting part to me is traveling around the world and meeting with my clients,” she said.  “I get to experience different cultures around the world.”

Swanstrom wants to give back to the philanthropic side of Nasdaq, when she has more time to focus on giving back to the people she visited all around the world.

Not only is Swanstrom helping run the stock market with Nasdaq, she’s also a mother of two, living in Germantown, Maryland: Billy, 19 and Jordan, 14.  Her children have supported her throughout her entire career.

“My biggest achievement has been being able to manage my children and a successful career,” Swanstrom said. “I feel I have a really close relationship with my kids and I love every step of the way of what they are going through. They also participate in my successes at work and I feel that they are proud of me.  I feel very fortunate to have the complete package.”