Gary Offner is Head of Nasdaq Ventures, the fintech venture investment arm of Nasdaq. His notable investments include Series A in XM Cyber (acquired by Schwartz Group for $700M), Series B in ErisX (acquired by CBOE), formation round of Fnality International (recent $90M equity financing led by Goldman Sachs) where Offner serves as Chairman of the NomRemCo, and leading the formation of the Nasdaq Private Markets JV, where Offner serves as Chairman, between Nasdaq, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, BNP Paribas, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Allen & Co. and DRW Ventures to modernize the private shares market. Mr. Offner joined Nasdaq in 2017 to found and build its investment team. Nasdaq Ventures has closed 28 investments since then with an IRR in the top quartile of VC returns. Offner was formerly a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley where he managed Principal Strategic Investments and its team globally on behalf of the Institutional Equity Division for over a decade. In that capacity he led or co-led investments for MS in many of the defining market infrastructure companies of that period, including the National Stock Exchange of India (“NSE”), Series A in BATS Global Markets (became the second largest stock exchange in the US before IPO and eventual acquisition by CBOE for $3.2B), the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (acquired by Nasdaq for $680M), Series B in the Markets.com (acquired by S&P for $300M), formation round in BIDS Trading (became the largest block crossing network in the US and was acquired by CBOE), Series A in Chi-X Global (acquired by Nasdaq and JD Flowers), formation round in Symphony Communications (became a unicorn), Series A in Enfusion (IPO at $2.4B), Series A in SR Labs (majority acquired by Insight Ventures and now Vela Systems) and formation round in Visible Alpha ($500M acquisition by S&P). During his tenure at Morgan Stanley, in total Mr. Offner led or co-led investments in 26 companies with an IRR in the top quartile of VC returns. Mr. Offner has served on the boards of a number stock and options exchanges, market infrastructure and financial technology companies, including at each of the investments cited above (with the exception of NSE and Chi-X Global), during critical phases of their inception, development and growth, in many cases serving on strategy and compensation committees. Offner earned his BA in Economics, Magna Cum Laude, from Columbia College in 1990, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a MBA from Columbia Business School in 1996, where he was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma.