e-vite invitation is at http://www.pace.edu/charles-gasparino.html

Contacts: (Pace University) Chris Cory, 212-346-1117, cell 917-608-8164, ccory@pace.edu (Harper Business publishers) Gretchen Crary, 212-207-7583, Gretchen.crary@harpercollins.com (CNBC) Brian.Steel@nbcuni.com

CNBC’s “pugnacious” Charles Gasparino to be interviewed by Pace President Stephen J. Friedman about “destruction” of global financial system

New Gasparino book calls for abolition of SEC, where Friedman was a Commissioner

Conversation and book signing at Pace downtown Manhattan campus Tuesday, November 17, 7-8 PM

NEW YORK, NY, November 5, 2009 – Charles Gasparino, the CNBC On-air Editor who the Financial Times has called Wall Street’s “most pugnacious reporter,” will discuss “How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement Destroyed the Global Financial System” at the student union of Pace University’s downtown campus Tuesday evening, November 17 at 7 p.m.

In his new book, “The Sellout,” Gasparino calls for the abolition of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He will be interviewed by a former SEC Commissioner, Stephen J. Friedman, who is the president of the University.

The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are suggested at 212-868-4444 www.SmartTix.com. A book signing will follow the discussion.

Friedman knows both Wall Street and government from his work as a prominent business lawyer (former senior partner at Debevoise & Plimpton LLC), deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury, executive vice president at The Equitable Companies Incorporated and the E.F. Hutton Group Inc., and U.S. Supreme Court clerk.

Return of uncontrolled risk?

The evening’s topic is the subtitle of “The Sellout,” which is Gasparino’s third investigative book about Wall Street. It was published November 3 by Harper Business, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Early reviews have been enthusiastic.

“There’s good reason to believe that . . . The Sellout will become the definitive book on the current financial crisis…. The Sellout pulls no punches,” said Don Holland, of Real Clear Markets.com.

In The Wall Street Journal, James Freeman called the book “Splendid…Mr. Gasparino chronicles how … managers with a healthy fear of risk lost corporate power struggles to men more likely to ignore it.”

Recently Gasparino has been reporting a rapid return of extreme financial risk-taking and voicing skepticism about the ability of new regulatory efforts to control it.

He graduated from Pace’s Dyson College in 1985, having started his journalistic career as a reporter for a Pace student newspaper. He worked for the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek before joining CNBC.

Best business books of the year

Gasparino’s first book, “Blood on the Street,” was a Business Week bestseller and was listed by Barron’s as one of the best business books of 2005. His second, ‘King of the Club,” about Richard Grasso, former head of the New York Stock Exchange, was listed by the Library Journal as one of the best business books of 2007.

In addition to his on-air work for CNBC, Gasparino writes regularly for the website The Daily Beast, Forbes, and the New York Post, among others.

The event is co-sponsored by Pace’s schools of Law, Business, and Computer Science and Information Systems, its Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, the offices of Government Relations and Public Information, and a growing list of student organizations including the Pace Press and Paw Print newspapers, the Student Government Association-New York City, the Lubin Business Association, and Students of Caribbean Awareness.

About Pace

For 103 years Pace University has produced thinking professionals by providing high quality education for the professions on a firm base of liberal learning amid the advantages of the New York metropolitan area. A private university, Pace has campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York, enrolling nearly 13,000 students in bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs in its Lubin School of Business, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Lienhard School of Nursing, School of Education, School of Law, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. www.pace.edu

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