Richard A. Grasso
| Richard Grasso | |
| |
| Occupation | Former Chairman and CEO |
|---|---|
| Employer | New York Stock Exchange |
Richard A. Grasso was chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange from 1995 to 2003. He headed up the exchange during the greatest boom in its 215-year history and was widely praised for reopening the exchange less than a week after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.[1]
He was ousted from the position in 2003 after an uproar over his $139.5 million pay package, and because he favored maintaining the NYSE’s old trading system, rather than moving to electronic trading.[2] A judge ordered Grasso to return much of the pay package in 2006,[3] but in 2008 a court ruled that Grasso could keep the money. Former Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was the one who pressed the case against him.[4]
In July of 2015 it was reported that Grasso was returning to the U.S. equity market advising a company that intends to create two stock markets based in Wilmington, Delaware.[5]
He still serves as an adviser to exchanges because of his experience in New York and his reputation in the financial world.
Background[edit]
Grasso spent 35 years at the exchange, working his way up from an entry-level listings clerk to the chairman’s office. He once let a wrestler carry him across the trading floor when World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.’s stock debuted in 1999.
In 2006 Grasso invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination during an SEC deposition about the NYSE's investigation of improper trading by the specialist firms that managed trading in particular stocks.[6]
Education[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Rise and Fall at the Big Board. The New York Times.
- ↑ The Shaming of John Thain. The Financial Times.
- ↑ Grasso Ordered to Return NYSE Pay. NPR.
- ↑ Stock Exchange’s Ex-Chief Wins Battle to Keep Pay. The New York Times.
- ↑ Dick Grasso Returns to U.S. Stocks, on a Smaller Stage. Bloomberg.
- ↑ Grasso Took the Fifth In SEC Trading Probe. The Washington Post.