by John Russell, Franklin Templeton & STA Past Chairman
Preparing for change is how we all grew up. That first day of school, the transition to college, entering the workforce and preparing to build an independent life. Many of us, in fact estimates say more than 40%, made resolutions this past New Year’s Day towards making at least one positive change in our lives.
It’s often said that change is the only constant. Yet, as human beings we are evolutionarily predisposed to resist change because of the risk associated with it. Despite this resistance, adapting and embracing change is more important than ever. Napoleon once said, “One must change one’s tactics every 10 years if one wishes to maintain one’s superiority”. Today the pace of change is immensely faster, and that pace will only continue to accelerate.
As our markets evolve, we need to continue working together as an industry to advance those issues that affect all of us as market participants. STA has certainly provided a stage for its members to stay informed – and stay involved.
For those of us who have been in the industry for a while, we’ve watched and endured plenty of change in the equity markets, too. Not to sound too much like my father, but these are not the same markets from when I first started twenty years ago. I remember paper tickets and manually calculating average prices with all those fractions. The pace of change in technology has accelerated and will continue to change the way we do business.
As our markets evolve, we need to continue working together as an industry to advance those issues that affect all of us as market participants. STA has certainly provided a stage for its members to stay informed – and stay involved. Members attend our national and affiliate conferences, they participate in open industry calls and they leverage STA’s website to review comment letters and other relevant information.
The success of STA as an organization comes from the strength of our membership and by those members collectively working on a common cause. We all want to create and support strong and competitive equity markets. If you have not pulled up a seat to this table yet, please do so. You will be glad you did. For those of you that have, thank you and enjoy it.
I certainly have enjoyed having a seat at this table. A sincere “Thank You” to those of you sitting at the head of the table, the 2016 STA executive team: Jim Toes, Jon Schneider, Doug Clark, Mike Rask and Rory O’Kane. You and the entire Board of Governors made 2016 a memorable and successful year. It is now time to introduce the 2017 Board. Please join me in congratulating these individuals.