DICK Grasso’s family must be worried.
The New York Stock Exchange CEO was just risking his reputation when he got green slime poured on him to promote one new Big Board listing. But some of his other publicity stunts seem to entail risking life and limb.
Grasso’s daredevil proclivities first became clear last year when he led an African lion onto the floor to promote the listing of South Africa’s Anglogold mining company.
Next to the 500-pound beast, the diminutive Grasso looked a little nervous, but a few weeks later he was trekking off to the Colombian jungle on a secret diplomatic mission.
The president of Colombia, Andres Pastrana, had sought Grasso’s help in preaching capitalism to the drug-trafficking, Marxist FARC guerrillas. Much to the chagrin of some of the relatives of the FARC’s American victims, Grasso was pictured embracing Paul Reyes, one of the guerrilla leaders.
Grasso returned from the jungle unscathed, and a year later he seemed to have calmed down. But this week, when World Wrestling Foundation shifted its listing from the Nasdaq to the NYSE, Grasso found himself on the shoulders of a professional wrestler.
What will he do next to get the media spotlight? We can’t wait to find out — his family probably can.