[2] He is the former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange , and the founder and chairman of Virtu Financial. Virtu, traded on NASDAQ, is an electronic trading firm and market maker that uses proprietary technology to handle high frequency stock trades. Under his leadership, the Panthers have continued to further these efforts both on and off the ice, including the revitalization of Fort Lauderdale's historic War Memorial Auditorium and construction of a two-sheet team practice and community ice facility-the Baptist Health IcePlex-which will host an array of community hockey and skating programs and increase access to the sport of hockey to thousands of tri-county residents. And I remember there was this phenomenon called the honor drill roll, where they would sit down with charged cadets and basically ask them to put a check next totheyd go through each ofthe drill roll was basically the roster of each company of everyone in that class. And I had a few friends from other companies that were in there. So I was experiencingI dont want to paint the picture like we felt estranged here. My management leadership operation, dare I say, capacity, capability, is bounded in the skills around platoon leadership. Virtu obscures its public financial reporting by providing only consolidated financial information. We were probably one of the most extraordinary in that regard. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Many just did it almost as a social activity. So branch night, I stood up and said, Infantry, with great pride. And now you had groups who wanted to make sure that civil liberties and personal liberties were not violatedin fact, I think the ACLU mightve gotten involvedand then the civilian lawyers who got involved to represent these cadets. She didnt work. Viola and his wife, Teresa, sold the places in March for $11.3 million. At a peak. If you could just actually spell your name for the transcriber. So for more than one invasion, he was in the middle of the landing and in the middle of the action. Lets actually go to the nature of that kind of training. Vincent J. Viola is the Chairman, Owner and Governor of Sunrise Sports & Entertainment and the National Hockey League's Florida Panthers, as well as Chairman of the Florida Panthers Foundation. In December . And I remember, in 1971, a young soldier from my neighborhood, who my family knew the family, got killed, and he was an infantryman. 55 which suspects its been cheated. And my dad received a V letter from my grandfather, commanding him, basically as strong Italian fathers will do to their sons, that he must go visit his relatives in the village where my dad was actually born. So the Department of the Army commissioned, created a commission, which was led by Frank Bormanwho I believe is class of 1951, he was an Apollo. And my dad said to me, Before I pass, I want to go to the village. And so in April of 1980, we went to this villageI had never been therewhere my dad was born. Florida Panthers and floridapanthers.com are trademarks of the Florida Panthers Hockey Club, Ltd. NHL, the NHL Shield, the word mark and image of the Stanley Cup and NHL Conference logos are registered trademarks and NHL Draft name and logo are trademarks of the National Hockey League. Oh, what did I do professionally? So Im sure people probably didnt have it as an academic priority like, lets say, the social sciences paper that we had to write our first class year. Most persons had been introduced at some point to drug usedrinking was very, very accepted. Im sure theres some of that. The honor committee became basically a full-time job for him, to the point where, as I remember, he missed many classes. Did you find yourself when you would travel off being mocked and harassed by people? I can tell you that a vast majorityif almost every one of my professors that were uniformed here, and when I was a cadet, I dare say that seemed like 95 percent of the staffwere combat veterans. Related by education: New York Law School. Thats his passion. And his devotion and his enthusiasm around it and pride in it was completely infectious. I think it was the spring of our Cow Year, our third year here, and I remember during breakfast formationthese might be false memories. He was for several weeks President Donald Trump 's nominee for United States Secretary of the Army, before withdrawing from consideration. Viola has used his control to create economic in-equivalence in ways that result in Viola and other pre-IPO owners receiving a substantially larger share of the cash distributions from Virtu LLC than the Class A stockholders receive. And your mother was sick also, had you said, or. In some ways it does, absolutely, I would say. My classmates used to tease methey said I had a very, very thick rubber band that was sewed in my back, and it would only stretch up to West Point and then spring back to my neighborhood in Brooklyn. Vincent Viola, age 86, of Brooklyn passed away Saturday, January 11, 2020. Vincent "Vinnie" Viola is an American billionaire businessman and U.S. Army veteran. Cause she wanted you to have another skill. It was much the same as it is now and probably was for many years before: a very concentrated, specific social culture that was extremely singular in purpose. [3] Viola is the owner of the Florida Panthers, a National Hockey League (NHL) ice hockey team. The suit asks a judge to force the company, Virtu Financial Inc., to produce its books and records for inspection by the plaintiff the pension fund of Toledo, Ohios Iron Workers Local No. So Ill give you an example, From the 101st Airborne to the Trading Floor. But I remember word starting to spontaneously spread through the class that there was a big issue with whether cadets had collaborated on this exercise. Yeah. They were all cadets that had been found guilty on honor, or were awaiting their trial, their honor trial, or awaiting results. He actually commanded the forces during an operation up in the central highlands near the Cambodian and Laos borderit was 197071called Operation Ripcord. So well just have a nice conversation here. We only knew we wanted to serve our country. All Rights Reserved. You always want, in your mindyeah, because if you come through here, you cant help but to be singular in your desire to serve. And I think that proves in the military service, I mean I think if theres ever been a period where the Academys value to the nation should be celebrated and demonstrated, its the post-Vietnam era til today. It was really the trigger for me to leave the Army, actually. And I rememberand we had to recite, every day, in most classesparticularly mathematics, where we would take positions at our blackboards and solve a problem, and then brief on that problem. So lets talk a little bit about that. The mansion has bounced on and off the market since 2013. So as would follow, the qualifications of my class were not as high as classes before and classes after. People always say you learn to be a leader at West Point, but I find it hard to imagine how you teach leadership. Even if he didnt know what he was talking about, he sounded like he knew what he was saying. And its a very grave, simple, but singular point in which your responsibility to duty and your understanding of it intercedes with your desire to take it on. Viola and other pre-IPO insiders continue to directly own units of Virtu LLC that are economically equivalent to Class A shares. My company was very unique, and Im sure there were others like thisI dont have statistics on thisbut we were what you called a sort of gray company. It absolutely did, and as it, thankfully, always does, the Academy and itsthe accommodation of its Spartan core and Athenian, almost, force, or pilot flame, is almost this intellectual curiosity that must exist here and does, always lags and doesnt react as broadly, deeply, or as quickly. I think youthis place overwhelms you in a positive sense. Vincent Viola is our Founder and has served as our Executive Chairman since November 2013. Tell me how you experienced that. Now, hes sitting on the honor committee in judgment of his fellow cadets, right? Reflects change since 5 pm ET of prior trading day. And I got absolutely no responses, and it was a pretty tough periodit was still a deep recession. website designed by wwdb integrated marketing, Video: Bob Graham on Unanswered Questions of 9/11, please make your tax-deductible contribution today. People of your generation did not usually want to enter the Army at this point. Some of these very general storiesnot too specificand I thought West Point would be the best place to attempt to become commissioned. So I remember distinctly, as a young man, reading about some of the first battlesI cant remember specifically which ones. My dad served in combat in World War II, many of my uncles did. When the distaste for the Army was at a peak. We were very, very Spartan and committed to the Academy and to its principles. Now, Im sort of casting that, but I remember as a young cadet on a Saturday morning, more than one time having a math professor when we were cadets, Im saying it againwhen I was a cadet, when we were cadets, we attended class six days a weekSaturday til twelve oclock or something, maybe even laterone oclock maybe. A life-long horse racing enthusiast and owner of St. Elias Stables, Mr. Viola owns the 2017 Kentucky Derby and Florida Derby-winning horse, Always Dreaming, and the 2019 Breeder's Cup Classic winner, Vino Rosso. In the book, Lou Guttman, the previous chairman at the New York Mercantile Exchange, said Viola "exuded leadership. Ms. Viola also recently sold a home in Brooklyn Heights for $25.5 million, setting a price record for a townhouse sale in the borough, records show. Theyre so committed, generally speaking, to them, so even when I was getting ready to leave and had put in to resign, I had more than one senior officer come to me and say, If you stabilize your family or your dad and mom are actually able to move with you, Ill help you get an assignment and pick up on your career again. It was just amazingyou always feel as though youre part of the Army. So Ill try to take you through the first day, and to graduation. It was very fascinating, and I could actually say, for me, it was quiteI was self-aware of it, because the academymy classI think this can be documented. Its a very enjoyable year. My mom had two of her brothers and five nephews in combat. And that stuck with mesort of confirmed for me that the military was an honorable profession. And the academy was a place where those inputs werent really defining the environment. I remember distinctly we had a special arrangement with the Essex Hotel where we could stay there for $21.00 a night. Spring through Firstyeah. And look at me, actually, instead of at the camera. [14] Prior to and following the Gulf War, Viola earned millions of dollars betting on oil prices. The company that I was a member inas Im sure you knowafter Beast Barracks you are assigned to a company in one of the four regiments. One was the cadets who were completely indignant, and almost felt they should be able to cheat, and were very reactive to the potential that they could be thrown out for an honor scandal which was and should be the standardstarted to agitate, basically against the whole surety of the honor code as it was being practiced. The San Francisco 49ers are going to undergo some dramatic changes to their coaching staff this offseason following the departure of DeMeco Ryans. They lived in a one-room house. So what was it like? Well, and I remember my one buddy, who did go to collegetwo or three of us went to collegedescribing to me frat parties, you know. And remember, from the first day youre here, you understand what singularity isyou understand what singularity is. We have a responsibility to address this direct public health threat that impacts the populations we serve as well as those who use our facilities. He resides in Jupiter, Fla. with his wife, Melissa Lautenberg Cifu, their daughter, Rachel, and son, Daniel. Viola. A graduate of the U.S. Army Airborne, Air Assault, Infantry, and Ranger Schools, Mr. Viola served as an infantry officer in the 101st Airborne Division, and his dedication to the U.S. military additionally led to his creation of the Florida Panthers' Heroes Among Us program, which has honored hundreds of veterans, and counting, since its inception in 2013. The numbers are staggering. The actress was born the fifth of six children in St. Matthews, South Carolina, in her grandparents' house, where her grandfather was a sharecropper on a plantation. Yeah. Yes. For us, it wasI only knew I wanted to be an officer, and I wanted to be an Infantry officer, because thats what the vision and image around the Army that I received from my dad. Donald Trumps real net worth? Hes a wonderful role model and a great soldier, and I still keep in touch periodicallyjust simply very blessed. I think hes not removed. So my class would be a fascinating study. I mean even those whocertainly those who actually did it must have, but did the rest of the class feel tainted by this? A native of Syosset, N.Y., Cifu graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University, where he was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society, before completing his J.D. We had war heroes. You were always very good at mathematics. I was always pretty good at mathematics. And I was born in a neighborhood that was very close to Wall Street, and the generation before mecause Wall Street always had a demand, especially in those days, for pretty much cheap labor. If you dont understand all of the inputs to that self-realization or self-decision point, you seek out and you ask, What is it like to be in combatphysically, psychologically?. Since his purchase of the Florida Panthers franchise in 2013, Mr. Viola's leadership, investments in the local community, and dedication to growing the game of hockey in the State of Florida have not only transformed the team's on-ice performance-leading to a 2021-22 Presidents' Trophy win for most regular-season points-but helped to expand interest in the sport across the Sunshine State while making a positive impact in the lives of South Floridians. Vincent James Viola, Jr. of Troy died May 17, 2022. And I was never called for even a drill roll check, nor were any persons in my company. We are a 501(c)(3) organization. Right. His personality was amazing. It had to be temptingI mean tempting literally, but it had to temptyou had to look at it and think, Wow, Im going to go back, and Im going to go through this rigorous schedule, and theyre going to go off and have fun, and play, and listen to rock and roll, and. Viola and his wife Teresa have three adult sons and live in New York City. Right, 1982the stock market rally begins in late August of 1982, and as we all know, the beginnings of long-term economic expansions dont feel like theyre going to be long-term economic expansions. They weren't immediately available for . Yes. Net Worth: $2.8 Billion. My dad hadnt been there since. Integrity honestyattempting to become an ever-improving subject matter expert. The senior staff, as I rememberI remember seeing the Korean service ribbon on some of the senior staff and permanent professorsdare I say when I started our Superintendent, William Knowlton, General Knowltonhe served in World War II, in fact. One sort of out of the movies, in a sense, and the other one. So it was a pretty challenging situation, and I decidedand even myheres the thing about the Army thats very hard to describe until you experience it. Ill veer off to a very interesting story. Viola, former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange and owner of the Florida Panthers professional ice hockey team, hopes to multiply his money several times on the historic home he. Born in Providence, a son of the late Albert and Michelina (DeGregorio) Viola. My mom and dad were my dependentsand my younger brother were my dependents from the day I graduated. FloridaPanthers.com is the official Web site of the Florida Panthers. It was a special provisional detachment. Never wanted out. And then as a young person, seeing the first soldiers returning from Vietnam from the neighborhoodit was a working-class, basically uneducated neighborhood. But I remember there was a formation, and I remember there were a host of names called out to fall out at the end of the formation. And I remember as a young man saying, Thats his life. Viola splurged on real estate with stock sale proceeds, buying a beachfront Florida condo and spending $108 million on Arizona's tallest skyscraper. Spring through First Class year summer, yeah. And I remember hearing later that the people were called out of formation, because they were informed that they were under an honor investigation for an exercise, a take-home exercise that we had in electrical engineering. Nor were any persons in my company and five nephews in combat in World War,... Hard to imagine how you teach leadership Virtu, traded on NASDAQ, is bounded in book... `` exuded leadership previous chairman at the New York City one of the and! Pre-Ipo insiders continue to directly own units of Virtu LLC that are economically equivalent to a! 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