What a dickhead! Grasso is...
Grasso Says NYSE Is 'Saddened'
As Board Loses Martha Stewart
By KATE KELLY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
NEW YORK -- The New York Stock Exchange lost two board members Thursday, though one has become much more famous than the other.
One board member who resigned, Martha Stewart, said the rigors of her "very busy corporate life" forced her to step down.
Then, after the exchange's board meeting, NYSE Chairman Dick Grasso announced that Michael Carpenter, who runs Citigroup Inc.'s investment portfolio, also had resigned from the board. Mr. Grasso said the move followed a change in corporate duties for Mr. Carpenter. The unit he formerly ran, Salomon Smith Barney, has been at the center of the recent controversy about the allocation of initial-public-offering shares.
TOUGH TIMES
Martha Stewart's Future as CEO
Darkens as She Quits NYSE Post
Ms. Stewart's resignation came one day after prosecutors in the ImClone Systems Inc. insider-trading scandal laid out possible evidence against her as part of that investigation. That road map came in papers filed as part of a guilty plea by the assistant to Ms. Stewart's stockbroker at Merrill Lynch & Co.
Ms. Stewart informed the exchange of her decision to resign in a letter. She said she regretted the resignation, but said the demands of her "corporate life require my full attention at this time." She said she didn't want the media attention surrounding her case to "distract from the important work of the NYSE."
Mr. Grasso said the exchange was "saddened" by Ms. Stewart's decision. "Our board will miss Ms. Stewart's counsel and insight," he said.
While Mr. Grasso stressed that Ms. Stewart made her own decision to step down, people familiar with the board's thinking said that there was mounting concern about the bad publicity surrounding the ImClone scandal, and that some board members discussed raising the issue before Ms. Stewart made her announcement.
Ms. Stewart's presence on the NYSE board had presented a dilemma for Mr. Grasso, who has sought to make corporate responsibility a central issue for the exchange. He consistently had stood by Ms. Stewart, despite the deepening scandal, saying that in the absence of proof of misconduct, she was welcome to stay on the board.
Initially, said Bob McCooey, chief executive of Griswold Co., a NYSE brokerage firm, "I know she was adamant about not resigning," and that Mr. Grasso had supported her. But after the news of a guilty plea by her broker's assistant, "probably Martha felt she was not serving the institution that well."
Ms. Stewart joined the NYSE board in June. Her term was set to expire in 2003.
Write to Kate Kelly at kate.kelly@wsj.com
Updated October 4, 2002
AI
