To celebrate Women’s History Month, TiiCKER has looked at women at the helm of major publicly traded companies, up-and-coming women executives to watch and the stubbornly persistent pay gap between women and men. Today, we are highlighting five women in finance.

These are women in leadership roles at some of the most powerful financial institutions in the world. Not only are women making strides at publicly traded companies, but they are also increasingly behind the institutions that wield serious economic power at banks, markets and other financial institutions.

Here are five women who have changed the world of finance as we know it:

Abigail Johnson, Chairwoman and CEO, Fidelity Investments (Tii:FNF)

Under Johnson’s leadership, Fidelity Investments reported a 15% increase in revenue in 2021, even better than the 13% jump the previous year. Much of the growth can be attributed to its retail-investing accounts. The company wisely courted retail investors who have flooded the market in recent years thanks in part of the government’s COVID-related stimulus money. Fidelity Investments has attracted a host of new, young investors. Over the last few quarters, 2.3 million new individual shareholders aged 18 to 35 have become Fidelity clients.

Adena Friedman, President and CEO, Nasdaq (Tii:NDAQ)

Friedman has spent more than 20 years at Nasdaq and in 2017, she became the first woman to lead a global exchange. She has used her position to embrace technology in an effort to democratize capital markets. Under her watch Nasdaq has pushed for better use of technology, data and analytics.

Nadine Chakar, CEO of Securrency

Chakar, the former head of State Street Digital, State Street (Tii:STT), was tapped earlier this year to lead the crypto infrastructure startup Securrency. Chakar is a financial veteran with more than 30 years experience who is piloting Washington, D.C.-based Securrency's next stage of growth as it aims to scale its compliant crypto infrastructure for global financial institutions.

Julie Monaco, Managing Director, Global Head Public Sector, Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory, Citigroup (Tii:C)

Monaco manages Citi's Public Sector Group worldwide, an organization that offers a full range of banking advisory, treasury and trade solutions, and capital markets services to public sector clients. Her group has focused on issues of sustainability, governance, debt restructuring and helping sovereign governments attract financial investment to alleviate economic insecurities.

Jennifer Johnson, President and CEO, Franklin Templeton (Tii:BEN)

Johnson has held multiple leadership positions at Franklin Templeton over the course of her 30-year career. She has held leadership roles in investment management, technology, distribution and operations. Johnson was named CEO in February of 2020. Four months after she became CEO, the company acquired Legg Mason, which put the combined organization's assets under management at over $1.5 trillion. Her work didn’t stop there. Since then, Franklin Templeton acquired O'Shaughnessy Asset and Lexington Partners. Johnson noted that, following the acquisitions, the firm has become one of the largest managers of alternative investments.