Rosenblatt Securities Undertakes Leadership Transition
Longtime President/COO Joe Gawronski Appointed CEO
Founder, Industry Pioneer Richard Rosenblatt to Continue as Chairman
New York, NY, March 14, 2022. Rosenblatt Securities is pleased to announce that Joe Gawronski has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the firm, succeeding founder and securities-industry pioneer Richard Rosenblatt, who will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board.
“Over the past four decades it has been a great honor for me to guide our firm through a period of massive industry change, not just surviving but thriving. And, fortunately, I am able to hand over the reins at a time when the firm is its strongest financial position ever” said Rosenblatt, 78, who founded the company in 1979 on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as Richard A. Rosenblatt & Co.
“Hiring Joe almost 20 years ago was my greatest trade,” added Rosenblatt. “Joe has been a great partner, an even greater friend, and proven himself to be a great leader at the firm and in the industry. And he will be leading the strongest team the firm has ever been blessed with. I am confident that he will continue to make me proud of the firm that bears my name. In fact, as the firm’s largest shareholder, I am betting on it.”
“I’m deeply grateful for Dick’s leadership, mentorship and friendship over the years, and the trust he is placing in me by giving me the opportunity to follow in his footsteps as CEO,” said Gawronski. “I have a tremendous amount to live up to. But two decades learning from him and being a part of the culture he’s established has prepared me well. To say I’m excited about the firm’s momentum and the opportunities we have ahead of us to build on the solid foundation Dick has laid would be a gross understatement.”
Rosenblatt led the firm from humble origins as a “$2 broker” on the NYSE floor to the diversified brokerage, research and investment-banking boutique it is today. Following the 1987 “Black Monday” crash, the firm became the first to offer institutional investors direct electronic access to the NYSE, bringing new efficiency to trading workflows that helped reduce transaction costs for the investing public. Shortly thereafter Rosenblatt Securities became one of the first firms to trade “over-the-counter” stocks as an agent, years before Nasdaq transitioned from a dealer-driven to an auction marketplace.
Rosenblatt also served the NYSE in a variety of member-leadership capacities over the years, most recently as a Senior Executive Floor Governor. And he has been a leader in philanthropy, founding the Floor Members Outreach Program — which has been helping individuals battle addiction and other mental-health problems for 35 years — and co-founding the NYSE Fallen Heroes Fund, supporting the families of New York City-area police and firefighters killed in the line of duty.
Gawronski, 52, joined Rosenblatt Securities as Chief Operating Officer in 2002, after serving as COO of Linx, an innovative crossing network also founded by Rosenblatt. Previously, Gawronski was an equity research salesperson with Salomon Smith Barney, as well as a securities and mergers and acquisitions attorney with Sullivan & Cromwell. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Princeton University. Gawronski has successfully led a number of strategic initiatives to expand and diversify Rosenblatt, including launching the firm’s market-structure practice and, more recently, building its investment-banking and equity-research departments. He has served as President and COO since 2007.
Today, Rosenblatt Securities is both the largest NYSE floor broker and a leading “upstairs” trading desk for institutional investors. The firm is recognized as the industry’s top-rated provider of market-structure analysis. It also boasts a highly rated technology, media and telecom (TMT) equity-research team and an investment-banking team dedicated to advising technology and fintech companies on capital-markets and M&A transactions.
In conjunction with the executive leadership transition, the firm has appointed Jourdan Frain as Head of Execution Services. A decorated US Army Officer who joined Rosenblatt in 2019, Mr. Frain previously was an electronic equities trading specialist with JP Morgan following his graduation from Columbia Business School and the University of Pennsylvania.
About Rosenblatt Securities: Rosenblatt Securities is a boutique tech research firm, investment bank, and independent institutional brokerage founded in 1979 and headquartered in New York. The firm is the largest floor broker on the New York Stock Exchange and provides industry-leading market-structure analysis, global technology and fintech equity research, consulting and investment-banking services to a wide variety of clients globally, including institutional investors, exchanges, regulators, technology companies, banks, brokers and proprietary trading firms. In 2021 the firm was named Best Firm for Market Structure & Execution Consulting by Financial News. It also has been named two years running to Institutional Investor’s FinTech Finance 40 list. For more information, please visit www.rosenblattsecurities.com.
