Nasdaq appoints Cohen and Griggs each as presidents, formalizing new structure

(Reuters) - Nasdaq Inc on Friday said its board appointed Tal Cohen and Nelson Griggs each as presidents, formalizing the corporate structure the transatlantic exchange operator recently put in place to boost its efforts in major growth areas, like anti-financial crime software.

With the appointments, Nasdaq Chief Executive Officer Adena Friedman, who was also appointed chair of the New York-based company's board on Dec. 19, gave up the role as president, the company said.

"Tal and Nelson will focus on unlocking the value of Nasdaq's new organizational structure while working closely with Nasdaq Chair and CEO, Adena T. Friedman, on advancing key strategic priorities," the company said in a statement to Reuters.

Nasdaq reorganized its business units in September into three divisions: market platforms, which include North American and European exchange services, market technology, digital assets and carbon markets; capital access platforms, which includes indexes, data, and listings; and anti-financial crime.

The anti-financial crime service was bolstered by Nasdaq's recent $2.75 billion acquisitionof fraud detection firm Verafin.

Cohen, 50, heads the market platforms unit, while Griggs, 52, leads the capital access platforms division. The anti-financial crime unit is led by interim head Brendan Brothers.

Nasdaq on Wednesday reported first-quarter profits that beat Wall Street estimates, as demand for its anti-financial crime software helped offset a hit to its indexing business and a slump in initial public offerings.

(This story has been corrected to clarify that Cohen and Griggs are "each presidents," not "co-presidents," in the headline and paragraph 1 and also makes changes to say Brendan Brothers is now interim head of anti-financial crime unit in paragraph 6)

(Reporting by John McCrank in New York and Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)