Kenneth D. Pasternak (born February 21, 1954, New York City; raised in Fleischmanns, New York) is an American financial executive and entrepreneur. He is a co-founder along with Walter Raquet of Knight Trading Group, at one time the largest market maker in NASDAQ traded securities and also served as its Chairman and CEO.[1][2][3]
Pasternak has been a resident of Saddle River, New Jersey.[4]
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Kenneth Pasternak received a B.S. degree in education from The State University of New York at New Paltz in 1977. He received his high school diploma in 1972 from Margaretville Central School. [5][6]
Pasternak began his career in 1979 at Spear, Leeds & Kellogg where he became Senior Vice President, Limited Partner, and Trading Room Manager. He worked at Speer Leeds until 1994.
In 1995, Pasternak co-founded Knight Trading Group along with Walter Raquet, a publicly traded $1 billion financial services company. Pasternak served as the company's Chief Executive Officer from its founding in 1995 until he retired on January 21, 2002. Pasternak also served on the company's Board of Directors from 1998 until January 31, 2002. Under his leadership, Knight became the leading wholesale market maker in the United States securities markets. Pastenak and Raquet also took the company public in 1998 under the ticker symbol NITE, and its market capitalization exceeded $5 billion.
In 2001, Pasternak was ranked 9th on Forbes' financial services executive pay list, and number 51 overall,[7] with a total compensation package of $26,488,000; this included a base salary of $250,000 and a cash bonus, of $26,213,000. Because he owned founders' stock he was compensated primarily in cash, and in terms of cash, he was the highest paid CEO in 2001. Other notable financial services executives on this list included Henry Paulson Jr., the CEO of Goldman Sachs who ranked 70th on the list.[8]
In April 2000, Pasternak presented testimony to the US Senate Banking Committee on Competition and Transparency in the Financial Marketplace of the Future.[9] In May 2001, Pasternak presented testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs regarding the implementation and future of decentralized markets.[10][11]
Pasternak served on the Board of Directors of NASDAQ in 2001–2002 and the NASD Board of Governors in 2001–2002, and was an early-stage investor in the International Securities Exchange (ISE) in 1999.
In 2001, Kenneth Pasternak retired as CEO of Knight Trading Group.
In 1999, Kenneth Pasternak, Knight/Trimark Group Inc., was named Emerging Entrepreneur Of The Year by Ernst & Young.[12]
Pasternak faced a series of investigations brought by the NASD and the Securities and Exchange Commission for supervisory violations stemming from allegations brought by an ex-employee.
The NASD fined Pasternak $100,000 for each supervisory violation. However, a federal court ruled that Pasternak was not liable for any violation. The judge ruled, "I conclude that there is no evidence of any misconduct committed by Mr. Pasternak nor has there been any evidence of any misrepresentation or omission allegedly committed by Mr. Pasternak and I, therefore, conclude that he is not liable in a primary basis for a securities fraud." [13][14] Pasternak's lawyer characterized the ruling as "fully exonerat[ing] Mr. Pasternak and confirm[ing], without a doubt, what we have maintained all along - that neither Knight nor Mr. Pasternak ever engaged in any wrongdoing whatsoever." [15]
On March 5, 2010, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)[16] council reversed a ruling that found two former Knight Securities LP senior executives were responsible for supervisory failures in connection with allegedly fraudulent sales to institutional customers.
After retiring from Knight Trading Group, Pasternak founded Chestnut Ridge Capital, LLC, a northern New Jersey-based hedge fund, which also serves as the Pasternak family office. The fund's strategy is classified as Macro Long/Short and has approximately $90 million in assets under management.
Pasternak also serves as Chairman of KABR Real Estate Investment Partners LLC, a real estate investment firm. The KABR Group is dedicated to the purchase of select market cycle bottom real-estate assets in the New York/New Jersey area and southern Florida. KABR was formed in 2008 when Pasternak conducted a capital raise among family and friends. KABR is the first marketed product to come out of Chestnut Ridge Capital LLC. Outside of KABR, Pasternak owns approximately $100 million worth of real-estate.
On June 1, 2009, KABR closed a deal to purchase 85 Challenger Road - a 235,000 sq ft (21,800 m2) office building in Ridgefield Park, NJ. The Class-A office building sits adjacent to the NJ Turnpike and was formerly occupied by the Daewoo Corporaion. KABR purchased the building from AIG for "...the right price" according to Pasternak - though the sales price was undisclosed.[17]
Pasternak is a general partner in the development of the Belleayre Resort.[18]