Updated, 4:15 p.m. | One of the top executives at Nasdaq OMX, Eric Noll, is leaving the company to lead the brokerage firm ConvergEx Group.
Mr. Noll, who oversaw Nasdaq’s trading operations in the United States, was seen as one of the leading candidates to succeed Robert Greifeld as chief executive and was one of the company’s primary public faces.
The departure of Mr. Noll comes after the Nasdaq exchange suffered a string of technical malfunctions that have hurt its reputation in the technology world. In August, a glitch shut down all trading in Nasdaq-listed stocks for three hours. A few weeks later, Twitter chose to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange instead of Nasdaq.
Nasdaq said it hopes to find a successor for Mr. Noll at the end of the first quarter of 2014.
“We benefited greatly from Eric’s leadership and judgment in driving the diversification of trading products and solutions we offer customers today,” Mr. Greifeld said in a statement. “We wish Eric well as he embarks on this next phase of his career.”
Mr. Noll will begin as president at ConvergEx but will soon succeed the firm’s current chief executive, Joseph Velli.
Mr. Noll’s departure was first reported by Fox Business Network.