By Roxanne Chen, Student in the M.S. in Technology Management program
Visiting Nasdaq as a student in Columbia’s M.S. in Technology Management (TMGT) program made the idea of public markets feel concrete, connecting what we discuss in class with how markets actually operate. Organized by the SPS Career Design Lab, students in the TMGT and M.S. in Information & Knowledge Strategy programs had the opportunity to attend the bell-ringing ceremony, but the more valuable part was the discussion with the Nasdaq team afterward. They explained how companies become listed and the standards they are expected to meet, including governance structure, data disclosure, and long-term operational readiness. It became clear that listing is less about a single milestone and more about whether a company has built systems capable of operating under continuous public and regulatory scrutiny.
What stood out to me most was how Nasdaq positions itself as a technology-driven marketplace rather than just a place for trading stocks. Beyond capital access, they provide companies with infrastructure related to data, visibility, and market intelligence. From a technology management perspective, this reframed how I think about scale. Growth is not only about users or revenue, but about whether a company’s technology, processes, and information systems are robust enough to support transparency, reliability, and trust at a global level.
Experiences like this are one of the things I’ve appreciated most about the TMGT program. Through site visits, industry conversations, networking events, and in-person residency activities in New York City, students get to see how the ideas we discuss in class show up in real organizations. Being able to step into places like Nasdaq and hear directly from the people working there makes those concepts feel much less abstract. It’s one thing to talk about governance, scaling systems, or operational readiness in a classroom, and another to see how those ideas shape decisions within institutions operating at a global level. The TMGT program provides both perspectives.
Roxanne Chen
SPS students and faculty at Nasdaq
TMGT Program Director Shahryar Shaghaghi at Nasdaq
About the Program
The Master of Science in Technology Management at Columbia University prepares graduates to lead digital transformation, and align technology and business strategy with an ethical lens. Through experiential learning, industry partnerships, and Columbia-supported research, students gain fluency in digital platforms and emerging technologies, and learn to design human-centered solutions that drive innovation and sustainable impact.
The program is available for part-time or full-time enrollment online or on campus in NYC. Learn more about the program here.
