Word: grasso
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Love him or scorn him: Richard Grasso, chief of the New York Stock Exchange (N.Y.S.E.), is drawing strongly mixed signals of affection and rejection these days. At a civic function in New York City last week, Robert Nardelli, head of Home Depot, told Grasso that he would love to have him on his board--again--if he ever leaves the exchange. While Nardelli was wooing Grasso, seat holders at the exchange were doing their level best to make the N.Y.S.E. boss available, drumming up support for a special meeting that could lead to Grasso's resignation...
What does the N.Y.S.E. boss do? Grasso, 57, who has been chairman since 1995, won wide praise for his leadership after Sept. 11, 2001, but his main role in the 211-year-old exchange is essentially that of corporate hall monitor. Public companies can list their stocks anywhere, but 2,800 of them choose to do so with the N.Y.S.E., which maintains an old-fashioned trading floor for the purpose. (Trading is electronic at the NASDAQ.) The broker-dealers who make trades are members of the exchange, and Grasso enforces the rules they must follow to keep their spots. Recent...
Corporate-governance watchdogs applaud the new disclosure, but they are still amazed by the numbers. "That's a phenomenal sum for a regulator," says Charles Elson of the University of Delaware's Center for Corporate Governance. The N.Y.S.E.'s compensation committee, however, doesn't compare Grasso's paycheck to those of regulators. Fink says it looks instead to financial conglomerates and investment banks. Elson says those comparisons don't make sense; unlike a public company, the N.Y.S.E. has no stock to rise or fall with Grasso's performance...
...bulk of Grasso's payout--$91.6 million--comes from deferred retirement benefits and savings, and he enjoyed an 8% guaranteed return on one-tenth of his total compensation. "That's a little unusual," Jensen says, because most executive retirement plans peg their returns to vary with interest rates. Fink says the board will be reviewing all aspects of senior executive benefits in October...
Last week's bombshell may not be the last. Next spring the N.Y.S.E. will disclose more details about top executives' compensation, including Grasso's bonus for this year and perks. As Teslik points out, "It's reflected in the cost of every trade." Open books inspire confidence among investors, but the N.Y.S.E.'s open wallet may only remind them of the Street's greedy past...