NYSE head said economy will survive corporate scandals, terrorist attacks
Dick Grasso announces $150,000 grant to fund law and business program for corporate executives

“Just as those who committed terrorist acts on 9/11 will be taken out, so to will those who terrorized investors.”

— Dick Grasso Chairman and CEO New York Stock Exchange

Photo by Daniel Dubois

by Lynne Hutchison
In a speech yesterday before a standing-room-only crowd at the Vanderbilt Law School, New York Stock Exchange Chairman and CEO Dick Grasso said that Americans and world financial markets will recover from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the collapse of companies such as Enron.

“We have experienced an attack that damaged public trust and confidence in the greatest capital market the world has ever known,” Grasso said. “But we will rise from the ashes of the Towers and the disgust we feel when we say Enron.”

Grasso, who spoke as part of the Owen Distinguished Speaker Series, garnered praise for reopening the New York Stock Exchange only six days after the terrorist bombings on the World Trade Center. He likened the necessity of rooting out corrupt corporate management to the war on terrorism.

“There is a remedy to the misdeeds of those at companies like Enron, Adelphia, and WorldCom: pursue, prosecute, and incarcerate — nothing less,” he said. “Just as those who committed terrorist acts on 9/11 will be taken out, so to will those who terrorized investors.”

Grasso also announced a $150,000 seed grant to the Law School’s Law and Business program to fund classes on corporate governance responsibilities for directors of companies listed on the NYSE.

Vanderbilt’s Law and Business program — a joint venture of the Law School and the Owen Graduate School of Management — allows students to earn a law and business certificate without extending their studies beyond the three-year J.D. or M.B.A.

"I am proud the New York Stock Exchange has selected the Law School’s venture with Owen to help educate its directors in corporate governance," said Law School Dean Kent Syverud. "Vanderbilt's combination of academics and practitioners will help guide this important new development."

William Christie, dean of the Owen Graduate School of Management, said that courses funded by the grant are currently under development. He said the courses may be similar to Owen’s executive education seminars and may be offered at a two- or three-day conference attended by exchange directors.

While visiting Vanderbilt, Grasso, 56, also was named the Outstanding Financial Executive of the Year by the Owen School Finance Club. The club honored Grasso for his leadership of the exchange during dramatic changes in financial markets.

“He not only has maintained the exchange's position as the world's leading equity market, but has increased its stature and steadily improved the quality of its markets,” said Hans Stoll, the Anne Marie and Thomas B. Walker Professor of Finance at the Owen School and faculty adviser to the Finance Club.

Grasso climbed the management ranks of the New York Stock Exchange to become chairman and chief executive officer in 1995.

The New York Stock Exchange is the world’s largest equities market, with $15.3 trillion global market capitalization and nearly 2,800 listed companies. Average daily volume on the NYSE is more than 1.38 billion shares, valued at $42.5 billion

Posted 9/26, 2002 at 10:00 a.m.