Newsletter of
the Washington College Department of Business Management | Spring
2001
Jones
speakers bring global perspective to Washington College: DuPont's Holliday
and Nasdaq's Berkeley share strategic insights
Under the auspices of the J.C. Jones Seminar in American Business, over
the past two semesters two distinguished business leaders—the heads
of DuPont and Nasdaq—have met with students and given addresses at
Washington College. In April Charles O. Holliday, Jr., chairman and CEO
of E. I du Pont de Nemours & Co., spoke about the global responsibilities
of large businesses like DuPont. The first DuPont chief executive with
extensive international experience, Holliday served seven years as chairman
of DuPont Asia-Pacific.
"Living in Asia," he noted, "enabled me to realize both
the complexity of the global marketplace and the regional and national
interdependencies that make our economic system work."
Holliday,
recently elected chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development, also spoke at length about DuPont's environmental values
and strategy. DuPont, he said, is committed to sustainable growth that
creates value for the company's shareholders and global societies and
reduces the company's environmental footprint. Citing the DuPont Company's
singular longevity—200 years old in 2002—Holliday called DuPont
"one of the most sustainable industrial companies anywhere in the
world."
Washington College had previously honored Holliday with a doctorate in
1998, the year he was named DuPont's CEO.
In a J.C. Jones seminar this past October, Al Berkeley, president of the
Nasdaq Stock Market, met with finance students and gave a public address
on the history and future of the Nasdaq Stock Market. Nasdaq, a subsidiary
of the National Association of Securities Dealers, was founded in 1971
as a market for over-the-counter securities (securities not traded on
stock exchanges). Since 1971 Nasdaq has become the second largest securities
market in the United States (behind the New York Stock Exchange) and the
third largest in the world, with more than 5,000 securities listed. Nasdaq
is the world's first totally electronic stock market, and according to
Berkeley it continues to be committed to technological innovation.
Before being named president of Nasdaq in 1996, Berkeley was a managing
director at Baltimore-based financial services firm Alex. Brown Inc. At
Washington College, he spoke about Nasdaq's efforts to become the world's
first truly global stock market. Securities trading is a highly regulated
activity (in the United States the Securities and Exchange Commission
oversees Nasdaq), and Berkeley noted that Nasdaq faces major regulatory
hurdles in its efforts to expand into markets in Europe, Asia and elsewhere.
Berkeley had a clear answer about why firms would choose to be listed
in Nasdaq: technological superiority in trade execution and notification,
a decentralized structure that encourages ongoing innovation and lowers
costs and a strong commitment to global presence. With these attributes,
he argued, Nasdaq is poised to become a leader in the emerging global
securities market.