TopVet: Dick Grasso

Dick Grasso has been chairman and chief executive officer of the New York Stock Exchange since June 1995. In 1988, he was elevated to president and chief operating officer, and while continuing in those positions, he became executive vice chairman of the NYSE in January 1991.

He is the first member of the NYSE staff to be elected to any of these positions in the 208-year history of the Exchange. Mr. Grasso joined the Exchange in 1968, after he was honorably discharged from the Army.

Five years later, he became director of listings and marketing, in charge of adding qualified prospects to the NYSE’s list of companies. Four years after that, he was promoted to vice president of corporate services, and in November 1981, he was appointed senior vice president of corporate services, with the added responsibilities for liaison, coordination, and support for all NYSE-listed companies.

Mr. Grasso became executive vice president of the Exchange’s marketing group in 1983, and then executive vice president of capital markets in 1986, with responsibility for all financial products and the market data group. In 1988, he was elected president.

Mr. Grasso serves on the board of directors of Computer Associates International, the National Italian American Foundation, the Centurion Foundation, the New York City Police Foundation, and New York City Public Private Initiatives. Among his other positions of civic responsibility, he is chairman of the YMCA of Greater New York; a member of the Yale School of Management Advisory Board; a trustee of the Stony Brook Foundation; a member of the National Advisory Board of the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy; a member of the Baruch College School of Business Advisory Council; a member of the New York University Stern School of Business Board of Overseers; a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s International Capital Markets Advisory Committee; and co-chairman of New York City’s Project Smart Schools.

Mr. Grasso has received honorary doctor of laws degrees from the School of Law at Fordham University, the Graziadio School of Business at Pepperdine University, and La Salle University, and an honorary doctor of commercial science degree from Pace University.