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Richard Grasso
Richard A. "Dick" Grasso (born July 26, 1946) is a business executive who was the chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange from 1995 to 2003. He started in 1968, when he was hired by the Exchange as a floor clerk.
He later became embroiled in controversies and lawsuits about his allegedly excessive pay package and $188.5 million golden parachute. The New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit which challenged the compensation as excessive for the NYSE, which at the time was a nonprofit. However, on July 1, 2008, the New York State Court of Appeals dismissed all claims against Grasso because the NYSE had changed its status from a nonprofit to a for-profit organization, which meant that the attorney general had lost standing to sue Grasso.
Grasso was raised by his mother and two aunts in Jackson Heights in New York City. His father left the family when Richard was an infant. He graduated from Newtown High School in Queens and attended Pace University for two years before enlisting in the Army.
Two weeks after leaving the Army in 1968, Grasso became a clerk at the New York Stock Exchange. Grasso moved up in the ranks, becoming president of the exchange and then CEO in the early 1990s. As CEO, he was credited with cementing the NYSE's position as the preeminent U.S. stock market. Grasso also was an advisory board member for Yale School of Management.
On June 26, 1999, Reuters reported that Grasso met with Colombian rebels, the FARC. FARC is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department (on its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations since 1997) and is allegedly responsible for kidnappings and narcotics trafficking in order to bankroll their revolutionary activities (see: narcoterrorism).
The article quoted Grasso as saying, "I invite members of the FARC to visit the New York Stock Exchange so that they can get to know the market personally". Some found the meeting inexplicable, considering the FARC supports anti-capitalist ideals and has no officially recognized financial clout. Grasso told reporters that he was bringing "a message of cooperation from U.S. financial services".
On August 27, 2003, it was revealed that Grasso had been given a deferred compensation pay package worth almost $140 million. This caused immediate controversy, as the hand-picked compensation committee consisted mainly of representatives from NYSE-listed companies over which Grasso had regulatory authority as its CEO.
Following criticism of the deal from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman William H. Donaldson, who preceded Grasso as Chairman of the NYSE, and several pension fund heads (who control some of the largest pools of equity investment capital in the United States), the NYSE board asked Grasso to leave in a 13–7 vote. He stepped down on September 17, 2003, and several senior officials followed in the same month. Law firm Winston & Strawn carried out an investigation, on behalf of the NYSE, and a comprehensive report analyzing Grasso's alleged excessive compensation and benefits, and the governance failures behind it, was completed in December.
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Richard Grasso
Richard A. "Dick" Grasso (born July 26, 1946) is a business executive who was the chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange from 1995 to 2003. He started in 1968, when he was hired by the Exchange as a floor clerk.
He later became embroiled in controversies and lawsuits about his allegedly excessive pay package and $188.5 million golden parachute. The New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit which challenged the compensation as excessive for the NYSE, which at the time was a nonprofit. However, on July 1, 2008, the New York State Court of Appeals dismissed all claims against Grasso because the NYSE had changed its status from a nonprofit to a for-profit organization, which meant that the attorney general had lost standing to sue Grasso.
Grasso was raised by his mother and two aunts in Jackson Heights in New York City. His father left the family when Richard was an infant. He graduated from Newtown High School in Queens and attended Pace University for two years before enlisting in the Army.
Two weeks after leaving the Army in 1968, Grasso became a clerk at the New York Stock Exchange. Grasso moved up in the ranks, becoming president of the exchange and then CEO in the early 1990s. As CEO, he was credited with cementing the NYSE's position as the preeminent U.S. stock market. Grasso also was an advisory board member for Yale School of Management.
On June 26, 1999, Reuters reported that Grasso met with Colombian rebels, the FARC. FARC is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department (on its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations since 1997) and is allegedly responsible for kidnappings and narcotics trafficking in order to bankroll their revolutionary activities (see: narcoterrorism).
The article quoted Grasso as saying, "I invite members of the FARC to visit the New York Stock Exchange so that they can get to know the market personally". Some found the meeting inexplicable, considering the FARC supports anti-capitalist ideals and has no officially recognized financial clout. Grasso told reporters that he was bringing "a message of cooperation from U.S. financial services".
On August 27, 2003, it was revealed that Grasso had been given a deferred compensation pay package worth almost $140 million. This caused immediate controversy, as the hand-picked compensation committee consisted mainly of representatives from NYSE-listed companies over which Grasso had regulatory authority as its CEO.
Following criticism of the deal from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman William H. Donaldson, who preceded Grasso as Chairman of the NYSE, and several pension fund heads (who control some of the largest pools of equity investment capital in the United States), the NYSE board asked Grasso to leave in a 13–7 vote. He stepped down on September 17, 2003, and several senior officials followed in the same month. Law firm Winston & Strawn carried out an investigation, on behalf of the NYSE, and a comprehensive report analyzing Grasso's alleged excessive compensation and benefits, and the governance failures behind it, was completed in December.