20 Years Later, Former Nasdaq CEO Remembers 9/11

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, former Nasdaq Chief Executive Officer Hardwick Simmons was on the 50th floor of Nasdaq headquarters, then located at One Liberty Plaza and a few short blocks from the World Trade Center, when the first plane hit the North Tower, filling the air with paper and smoldering debris. As he wondered what was going on, devastation struck again as a second plane flew into the South Tower. It was then that Simmons knew something was terribly wrong. Two decades later, Simmons reflected upon the catastrophic events of that day and the ensuing resiliency of Nasdaq and New York City.

Immediately after the two planes struck the Twin Towers, Simmons knew he had to evacuate employees from One Liberty Plaza, which had sustained physical damage, particularly to windows on the lower floors.

“Who knew what was going to be next? The next plane could be our [building],” Simmons recalled in an interview earlier this week.

As the evacuation at One Liberty Plaza began, Simmons specifically remembered one secretary named Lillian, who was “particularly outstanding on that day” as she – regardless of her own health – went around the Nasdaq floors and made sure everyone, including himself, was able to get out and head down 50 flights of stairs.

Once outside, communication was enormously challenging as cell towers on the North Tower had been destroyed. With no cell service, Simmons knew he needed to get to a landline. Having served as CEO of Prudential Securities prior to joining Nasdaq, he headed to Prudential’s office nearby on Water Street, where he set up in his old office. Roughly two hours after the North Tower was struck, Peter Fisher, then the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance, contacted him to ask whether Nasdaq markets could reopen the following day on Sept. 12, to help deter future terrorist attacks and defy those who had tried to shut down the markets. While Nasdaq could have resumed operations (Nasdaq systems were housed in Newtown, Conn., not on Wall Street), Simmons said that Nasdaq stocks couldn’t be the only ones available to market participants. As a result, Nasdaq waited until the following week to resume trading.  

“It wasn't fair to open the markets and preclude quite a number of players, particularly large firms, if indeed they had been hit,” Simmons said. “We had to make sure that all of our clients could reach us.”

When the markets finally reopened the following Monday on Sept. 17, 2001, it felt like “victory,” Simmons remembered.

“Nasdaq, like the New York Stock Exchange and everybody in New York, was defiant at this point…Nobody’s going to take us down; that will show you. And we’re going to get back up and operating,” Simmons said.

While Nasdaq employees couldn’t return to One Liberty Plaza for nearly a year, many worked from Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square. It was an inspiring time because everyone was determined to get back to work, making Simmons particularly proud.

“Everybody did their job. We managed to get the new systems that we were planning up and operating,” he said.

One of the most poignant moments for him came a year later when he finally returned to One Liberty Plaza.

“It was pretty devastating for everybody. But everybody managed to overcome it. As I say, we're resilient,” said Simmons. “There was really a great spirit about New York.”

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