Ken Pasternak ’77 has earned a name for himself in the financial industry.

It was at New Paltz that the business mogul learned the professional skills that would one day lead him to the financial capital of the world, Wall Street.

“My personal journey took me from 12 Gage Hall to 12 Wall Street (the private entrance to the New York Stock Exchange),” he said. 

Pasternak, who graduated from New Paltz with a degree in Secondary Education and a concentration in Social Studies, arrived in New York City confident and ready for the competitive world of business on Wall Street.

In New York, Pasternak put his skill set to good use. At Spear, Leeds and Kellogg, a specialist firm on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Pasternak created a training program for new company traders and worked his way up to director of trading for the company in 1988.

Pasternak went on to become chairman, chief executive officer and co-founder of Knight Capital, a Fortune 1000 company in Manhattan in 1995. The company, whose NYSE ticker is NITE, had a market value of more than $5 billion dollars in 1999. Later that year, Pasternak received the Ernst and Young National Entrepreneur Championship Award.

He represented the financial industry in 2001 and 2002 by serving on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) Board of Directors and the NASD Inc. Board of Directors. Also in 2002, Pasternak founded a small private investment fund, known in the business as a hedge fund, Chestnut Ridge Capital. Since 2004, Pasternak also serves as chairman and co-founder for International Medical Resources.

Along the way, Pasternak never forgot where he began his journey.

In 2007, the Pasternak Family Foundation provided the $100,000 lead gift to the School of Business for a trading room in van den Berg Hall. The Kenneth D. Pasternak Trading Room will be a resource for business students learning about capital markets. The School of Business, which opened 24 years after he graduated, will dedicate the room in October 2007.

His civic involvement is not limited to the School of Business. Pasternak joined the New Paltz Foundation Board in 2006, and returns to campus periodically to speak with students and share the secrets to his success.