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a project like this," says TXSE chairman, founder, and CEO James H. Lee. "We'll soon be the seventh-largest economy in the world. We have the most financial- service employees and the most Fortune 500 headquarters of any state in the country." More broadly, Lee says, "The center of gravity has really begun to shift, economically, from the legacy regions of the country to Texas. And so, we have an ability to compete and build capital markets in a way perhaps no other state could." The argument is that capital-market infrastructure should follow capital, companies, and people southward. TXSE wants more competition among exchanges, greater transparency, and to make going public less burdensome. (As Lee has put it, TXSE hopes to be "on the side of the angels" by shortening the road to becoming a public company.) The Texas Stock Exchange arrived unusually well-funded — because this is Texas. TXSE has disclosed roughly $275 million in backing, with heavyweight strategic investors including BlackRock, Citadel Securities, Charles Schwab, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs. "The biggest names in global finance don't pool together over a quarter billion dollars to launch an exchange in record time because they think the status quo is working particularly well," Lee says. (Dallas businessmen Derek Wilson, Roy Bailey, Doug Deason, and Ray Waddell came in as early investors.) In 18 months, the TXSE team built a custom order-matching engine; more than 50 member firms participated in the launch. Primary listings began in September, when Dallas' own Texas Capital Bancshares moved two of its exchange-traded funds — TXS and OILT — from NYSE Arca to TXSE, making them TXSE's first primary listings. In October, Texas Capital moved its listing from Nasdaq, retaining its TCBI ticker until a planned change to TXCP. (Not to be confused with TCBY, although we love their Roasty Toasty Marshmallow.) Lee is not coy about what comes next. "No one has done what we've been able to accomplish in just two short years," he says. "And you're going to see listings on this exchange like never before." As for that indelible Y'all Street nickname? It predates TXSE. In 2016, Forbes writers Joel Kotkin and Mike Shires credited The Dallas Morning News with cheekily suggesting the term as Dallas' financial employment surged. We can't identify — yet — the individual who first coined it, but Dallas appears to have been calling its shot for roughly a decade. The Brains Behind the Bell At TXSE's center is Lee, the Houston- bred founder, chairman, and CEO, and a University of Texas McCombs School of Business alumnus. His accomplishment is not merely dreaming up an exchange but assembling the capital, regulatory approval, technology, and Wall Street veterans required to make one operational. Around him sits an executive committee that looks as though someone raided the established exchanges for top talent: Greg Ferrari, COO, formerly head of North American exchange trading at Nasdaq; Cameron Smith, global head of trading and co-president; Jeffrey Brown, chief legal officer and general counsel; Jaime Gow, CFO; Robert Marrocco, global head of exchange-traded products; Rick Yoder, chief technology officer; and Mathew Verghese, executive vice president. Ferrari's arrival in particular signaled that TXSE was graduating from entrepreneurial idea to serious market plumbing. The women of TXSE matter enormously, particularly in the contest for listings. Liz Hocker, global head of listings and capital markets, is charged with persuading companies to come aboard. Nicole Chambers, a former Nasdaq Texas-listings leader, brings issuer relationships; Alison Hennessy, managing director of exchange traded products, adds deep ETF experience; and chief of staff Peyton Migaud sits close to corporate strategy. Then come the boards — essentially Texas finance bingo. Citadel Securities, BlackRock, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Energy Transfer and Board, and Charles Schwab are represented on the TXSE Group board. The exchange board itself includes former NYSE/Cboe listings heavyweight Laura Morrison, Jefferies market-structure chief Anna Kurzrok, and other institutional-market veterans. Adele Taylor and Sonali Theisen add further female firepower at the group level. And, hovering magnificently over the broader Dallas financial world is Elaine Agather, a global vice chair at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, the chairman of the Dallas region for JPMorganChase & Co. and a TXSE strategic adviser. The Dallas Business Journal recently dubbed her the "Queen of Y'all Street." We see no reason to appeal the ruling. Location, Location, Liquidity For now, TXSE operates from Weir's Plaza at 3219 Knox Street, where roughly 100 traders, technologists, coders, and marketers create what TXSE global head of strategic communications Michael Short The state's 2025 GDP reaches about $2.9 trillion, making it the world's eighth-largest economy if Texas were ranked against countries. "The biggest names in global finance don't pool together over a quarter billion dollars to launch an exchange because they think the status quo is working particularly well." — James Lee, TXSE chairman, founder, CEO 73