Nela Richardson joined ADP as Chief Economist in November of 2020. Nela is the co head of the ADP Research Institute and leads economic research for ADP. Previously she was Principal and Investment Strategist at Edward Jones, a financial services firm. In that role, Nela analyzed and interpreted
economic trends and financial market conditions and recommended investment strategies. Nela is also the former chief economist at Redfin Corp., a national real estate brokerage and technology company, where she led a team of data scientists, economists and writers to track trends in the housing market. Nela also served as a senior economist for Bloomberg, L.P.,
covering housing and financial markets, and has held research positions at the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Harvard University’s Joint
Center for Housing Studies and Freddie Mac. She also worked as an adjunct finance professor at the Carey School of Business at John Hopkins University. Nela earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Maryland College Park with concentrations in financial economics, international finance and economic development. She obtained a master’s degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree from
Indiana University in Bloomington, where she was a triple major in mathematics, economics and philosophy.
Nela regularly provides insight on the economy, real estate trends and capital markets to policymakers, consumers and media. She is a regular contributor to Marketplace from American Public Media and has frequently appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business CNN, Yahoo Finance, the Wall Street Journal, FORTUNE magazine, The New York Times and other national and local media. Nela serves on the advisory boards for the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the University of Maryland Economics Department, and National Association of Business Economist and is a member of the National Science Foundation and Conference of Business Economists.