The new “anti-woke” stock exchange coming out of Dallas is gearing up to take on the New York Stock Exchange by furnishing its leadership team with seasoned Wall Street executives whose resumes span the likes of Charles Schwab, Nasdaq, and Citadel. 

The Texas Stock Exchange, which has already secured the backing of investment giants BlackRock and Citadel Securities, announced its new hires on Monday during a press conference at Austin. 

The role of global head of trading will be filled by a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission veteran, Cam Smith. A longtime Charles Schwab executive, Jeffrey Brown, will serve as the exchange’s chief regulatory officer. The senior managing director of listings at Nasdaq, Nicole Chambers, will take up the same role at the Texas Stock Exchange. 

The new exchange is also assembling a powerful board, including a former Texas governor, Rick Perry, a former SEC commissioner, Rick Roberts, and the global head of strategy at Citadel Securities, Alex Bussandri. 

“We are thrilled to have such a talented group of business, market structure, and policy leaders on our team,” the chief executive of the Texas Stock Exchange, James Lee, said on Monday. “These individuals have tremendous expertise in the markets as well as broader experience building and leading companies that have propelled their industries. Their perspectives will be invaluable as we position TXSE for success now and for the next generation.”    

Having raised more than $135 million in capital so far, the stock exchange plans to officially register with the SEC in the coming months, Mr. Lee added. 

The new launch comes amid rising backlash against ESG — environmental, social, and governance — investing, also known as “socially responsible investing” or “sustainable investing,” which has become popular among some of Wall Street’s largest asset management firms. 

TXSE, however, was announced in June as a more “CEO-friendly” alternative to the increasingly regulated NYSE and Nasdaq exchanges. Nasdaq, for example, implemented a board diversity rule in 2021 that stipulates that all listed companies must include one board member who identifies as female, a member of an underrepresented racial or ethnic minority, or LGBTQ+

Companies that list on TXSE will not have to abide by any ESG requirements. “This is as apolitical of an exchange as could ever be put together,” Mr. Lee said on Monday. Cutting down on the regulatory red tape, so to speak, will allow the exchange to offer lower fees for registering stocks than its New York counterparts. 

The exchange also taps into the trend of American corporations moving to states with more favorable governance and tax policies, such as Texas. Elon Musk has emerged as a major leader of the shift, after pledging to move the headquarters for his social media platform, X, and spacecraft company, SpaceX, out of California and to the Lone Star state. 

“Texas has become the home of capital in the United States,” Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, said during Monday’s press conference. “Texas is the modern embodiment of the American Dream, where everyone has an opportunity to succeed, and the Texas Stock Exchange will ensure even more businesses have that opportunity.”

TXSE will undoubtedly face an uphill battle as it fights to compete with the NYSE and Nasdaq, which effectively hold a duopoly over the American stock market. Amping up its anti-woke branding, however, may offer the new exchange a competitive edge. 

“Texas has a pretty clear message: ‘If you’re anti-woke, come here,’” the head of market structure research at Bloomberg Intelligence, Larry Tabb, told ABC News.