Debra Walton is a dynamic executive at the intersection of finance and technology. Growing up on a sheep farm in regional Australia, Ms Walton selected a job at the local bank because she liked the uniform and her mother thought it was ‘a good job for a girl’. Since then, Ms Walton has lived and worked on three continents, and has held senior executive positions across product, content, sales and marketing as well as financial and risk divisions. As Chief Revenue Officer, Data & Analytics at London Stock Exchange Group, innovation had been central to Ms Walton’s success. Her first major career development came in 1985 when, as head of sales for Australian based Giltnet Limited, Debra lead the negotiation of a joint venture agreement with Dow Jones Telerate and was part of the management team that took Giltnet Limited public on the ASX; making Debra one of the youngest female board members of an ASX listed company. Debra was a founding board member of the Cantor Financial Futures Exchange, the first electronic platform for trading U.S. Treasury futures contracts. She also served as President and Chief Executive of Nucleus Inc., a technology startup delivering enterprise solutions. She serves on the Board of Directors of Springboard, a Washington, DC based nonprofit that brings together entrepreneurs, investors, and industry experts to help women entrepreneurs build their companies. On top of this, Debra acted as a member of the leadership team responsible for the spin out of the Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk business to create Refinitiv, valued at 20 billion USD and the onward sales of Refinitiv to LSEG at a valuation of 27 billion USD. Ms Walton is passionate about helping others. She is a tireless advocate of gender equality speaking globally on diversity and leadership and has been the Sponsor of Refinitiv’s LGBT+ employee network. Ms Walton also champions areas of ESG advocating that sustainability will be the multiplier in financial services in the future.
Ms Walton is a recipient of a number of industry awards, including the New York Women’s Agenda Galaxy Award and the Women’s Venture Fund Highest Leaf Award. She was named by The Modern Sale and Collectiv as one of the Top 100 Global Sales Leaders in 2020 and 2021. In 2018 she won the Waters Women in Technology and Data Lifetime achievement award, and in 2017 the Gertrude Crain Award from the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) for her extraordinary record of achievement and service. In 2016 she was acknowledged as a Springboard Enterprises Oracle honouree, championing women entrepreneurship. In 2015, she was named a Woman of Vision by the Anita Borg Institute, won the coveted Merit Award from the Women’s Bond Club, and earned a spot on the New York Business Journal’s inaugural “Women of Influence” list.
“I truly believe that we live in a world today where most of us can achieve whatever we want in life. And because of this and my own journey I am deeply committed to helping others from non-traditional backgrounds to find their success.”
