Very fascinating, thats a great question. 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. The Brooklyn Heights home of billionaire Vincent Viola and his wife, Teresa, sold for $25.5 million in a deal that went through on Christmas Eve, according to public records. Now, didare you the first to go to West Point in your family? He was the founder of Virtu East in 2008, a founder of Madison . 2023 Forbes Media LLC. Im sure there were. But then I think Id love to pick up on it again, Because you said this at the beginning, and I think its really important to get you to talk about it a little bit morethat in a sense, the framework that you learned here. 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. And about five minutes into the gathering, I see these adult men crying and grabbing my dad, and lo and behold they had remembered how they were starving, and how in the war he brought them a truckload of food, and actually stood with them for two days, as I remember now. I hardly remember a classmate saying, Im here because its a free education. If you felt that way, you quickly realized in the first two, three, four weeks that going through this formation, this transformative process, was not worth all the money in the world, and you would move on. I remember a Major Davison, in military instructionI think, believe he was class of 1964. So theyand this is my perception. 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. Branch of THREE BROTHERS FAMILY OFFICE LLC (New York (US)) Agent Name. Tell me about Branch Night for youwhat did you choose? Yeah, and he was my first company commander. And thats very powerful continuum there of an Italian-American immigrant family that, not more than 17 years prior, 20 years prior, had been in that village, and now my dad and three of his brothers were in combat. And so theit mustve been quite an achievement for you. Yeah. That. He also suffered from alcoholism from when he came home from World War II until my Yearling Year. We are nonprofit, independent, nonpartisan, experienced. Your RSA Security Is On Its Last Legs. But what it was like was, again, a very Spartan environment, and Im sure the differenceor as I like to say, the arbitragebetween what life was in the civilian world for entering cadets on July 2, 1973 and life at the academy, Im sure that difference was in fewer times in our nations history larger, because the society had undergone a social revolution. Well, I stood in the Reserves. 118 records for Vincent Viola. Now, whyd you get out of the Army? Who was Superintendent when all this happened? Part of that was because we had some former soldiers in the company who were cadets throughout the four classes that were there any time, and part of it was because we had a tactical officerthen was at the rank of major, Major Joseph Kinzer an old-guard Infantry soldier who was a Vietnam combat veteran, a phenomenal infantryman and a fantastic tactical officer. And so that means you arrived here in 1970. He retired later on as a lieutenant general from the Army. And you learn them here from the first day youre here. So you had to be something of a maverick to want to stand up and say, Im going to go to the [United States] Military Academy now, particularly in the middle of the Vietnam Waror actually, at the end of the Vietnam War, even more. So what class are you, did you graduate with here at West Point? In 2003 he founded the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point to provide education and research about global terrorism. Douglas A. Cifu is the Vice Chairman, Partner, and Alternate Governor of Sunrise Sports & Entertainment (SSE), the National Hockey League's Florida Panthers, FLA Live Arena, and SSE's additional operating entities. You always want, in your mindyeah, because if you come through here, you cant help but to be singular in your desire to serve. Related by education: New York Law School. I heard the County Commission gave former owner Wayne Huizenga the keys to the farm and those keys got turned over to the subsequent owners when they bought the team. We were probably one of the most extraordinary in that regard. He resides in Jupiter, Fla. with his wife, Melissa Lautenberg Cifu, their daughter, Rachel, and son, Daniel. He was for several weeks President Donald Trump's nominee for United States Secretary of the Army, before withdrawing from consideration. Im just trying to understand this. They are co-owners of Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming. My dad was three years old, approximately, when they came to America. Vincent "Vinnie" Viola (born 1956) is an American billionaire businessman and U.S. Army veteran. And you have more privileges than youve ever had. Florida Bulldog delivers fact-based watchdog reporting as a public service thats essential to a free and democratic society. A very tall fellow, ramrod straight, and he wore the Silver Star, and I can remember he taught us small unit tactics in military instruction either my Plebe or my Yearling Year. As Chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) from 2001-2004, Mr. Viola's decisive leadership, guidance, and untiring efforts were credited with leading NYMEX's reopening following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. WASHINGTON Vincent Viola, the billionaire Wall Street trader Donald J. Trump has nominated to be the secretary of the Army, was accused in August of punching a concessions . This is what I wanted to ask you, and well close with this question cause we have to stop. So that was sort of the lowest quiz or take-home exam you could have. Hes nowhere near as rich as he boasts, nor as poor as his critics claim. You felt that from the first day, because it wasthe first day is transformational. She didnt have any skills, per se, except to be a housewife. [16], Leah McGrath Goodman's 2011 book, The Asylum: The Renegades Who Hijacked the World's Oil Market, describes Viola and his temperament. He was a devout Airborne soldier named Sidney Berry. My mom had two of her brothers and five nephews in combat. We were very, very Spartan and committed to the Academy and to its principles. Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images. You come here, and its interesting because society was just integrating, and internalizing the disruption that it experienced from the middle of the Vietnam War until its end. A few had very committed, intellectually grounded reasons for participating in these protests. Viola withdrew his nomination two months later citing business conflicts. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Viola is a graduate of Brooklyn Technical School and the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. The place was enormously proud of itself. We had a gentleman who was a war hero. Which was that the nation was in decline, the Army is in decline, old traditional trusted places were not to be trusted anymore. Former President Trump nominated Vincent Viola to become Secretary of the Army in 2017. In 2019, the company repurchased more than $500 million in company stock from Viola. Viola and his wife, Teresa, sold the places in March for $11.3 million. He was a combat commander during Vietnam. Yes. 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. 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. Viola has stacked Virtus Board with family, friends and longtime business associates.. Vincent Viola grew up in Brooklyn, graduated from West Point, is a former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange and after the Sept. 11 attacks founded a center devoted to combating terrorism. Did you havedid your family have an Army background at all? The protection of civil liberties was being focused upon. [3] Viola is the owner of the Florida Panthers, a National Hockey League (NHL) ice hockey team. 7901 4TH ST. N, ST. PETERSBURG, FL 33702. And I can just remember the passion with which he spoke about operational planning, and the conduct of a platoon operation. And my roommate at the time was a secretary to the honor committee, and so his life changed overnight. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Virtu Financial and its predecessors since April 2008. Florida (US) Branch. Teresa runs the interior decorating company Maida Vale Designs and also owns Teresa Viola Racing Stables. Cool on honor meant to the people who apparently would cheat and collaborate was that you were okay with collaborating or cheating. Hes down at Fort Monroe now, I thinkis that right? And upon further investigations, they found enough to where it was a systemic problem and challenge to the honor code. Vincent Viola is the former Chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and is one of the nation's foremost leaders in electronic trading.He is currently the Executive Chairman of Virtu Financial. Lets actually go to the nature of that kind of training. Prior to Virtu, Cifu practiced law for 18 years at the international law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where he was a partner. It was, yeah. They havent changed much, even til today, for hundreds of years, really. March 23, 2021 11:15 AM. Vincent Viola And that's very powerful continuum there of an Italian-American immigrant family that, not more than 17 years prior, 20 years prior, had been in that village, and now my dad and three of his brothers were in combat. All NHL logos and marks and NHL team logos and marks as well as all other proprietary materials depicted herein are the property of the NHL and the respective NHL teams and may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of NHL Enterprises, L.P. And look at me, actually, instead of at the camera. 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. You know, soldiering is as specific, is asthe skills of soldiering and the operational art that you must study and feel comfortable mastering is not unlike any other intellectual academic discipline. The problem was that the academy now had to make a decision around how to process these honor boards in a way that protected the principles of the honor code, and from an administrative and just execution perspective, was not overwhelmingas it did began to overwhelm. My dad hadnt been there since. [19] The choice was reported to be concerning to the nominated Secretary of Defense General James Mattis, who was reportedly not informed of the choice prior to the announcement, a position he would directly oversee, and was concerned about potential trading practices which were not yet fully investigated. If singularity in the computational world is the point at which speed to process information eclipses the information available which to process, theres a singularity around military ethos. Well, the Academy had a duty to then examine and investigate every one of those charges or derivative of accusations. The son of a truck driver from Brooklyn, Vincent Viola started electronic-trading firm Virtu Financial in 2008 and took the company public in 2015. My mom was not sick, but she was an Italian-American housewife. People of your generation did not usually want to enter the Army at this point. 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. Viola and other pre-IPO owners, who combined own only a little more than 1/3 of the equity units of Virtu LLC, have received a total of $706 million in cash distributions from Virtu LLC during the last seven quarters, says the complaint, which was filed last March to little media attention. I think youthis place overwhelms you in a positive sense. 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. 1. And I dare say that almost to a man, an officer, at some point during your term of instruction with that officer, he would stop class, either prompted by a question from a cadet, or prompted by a memory or desire to teach, and describe a combat situation he was in, or describe the rigors of combat, and teach what he came away from the Vietnam experience, and what he thought were eternal principles of the American Army in combat. All Rights Reserved. He actually commanded the forces during an operation up in the central highlands near the Cambodian and Laos borderit was 197071called Operation Ripcord. All Rights Reserved | Florida Bulldog. Ill veer off to a very interesting story. Ill neverI was startled, because I thought that this was a monolith, and I quickly realized that every individual cadets interpretation of duty and honor or country started from a very, very different perspective of what those words meant and how they internalized them. You transform to depths that youre not aware of. The honor committee became basically a full-time job for him, to the point where, as I remember, he missed many classes. Runnersrunners and clerks, and my neighborhood had a good amount of runners and low-level Wall Street professionals. Viola took the company public in April 2015. And that stuck with mesort of confirmed for me that the military was an honorable profession. I remember as a young man unrealistically wanting to go to Vietnam. The military mission and the duties, day-to-day, they take up so much of your consciousness that you are Puritan in your pursuit of the Spartan ethic. Well, what I remember of it is interesting, because there are very stark, deeply, almost burnt memories and images of it. But there's a ton that can be done to help this team be active after another NFC Championship Game appearance. Its very hard to come here and notleave not having a selfless sense of what duty means, what honor is, and the importance of your country. You have to study leadership in combat situations. The Corps has. In other words, the Corps has seen its better daysits not like it used to be. In 2017, a buyer was in contract to buy the home from Viola for $80 million, The Real . She didnt work. But [being] an American was critical to his deepest identity. And so I had to help financially, even while I was a cadet. So I remember distinctly, as a young man, reading about some of the first battlesI cant remember specifically which ones. We only knew we wanted to serve our country. But what happened next was the popular media got hold of this story. They were all cadets that had been found guilty on honor, or were awaiting their trial, their honor trial, or awaiting results. Vietnamization, actually, wouldve done some of that. 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. These outsized distributions to Viola and other pre-IPO owners represent an increase of over 130 percent from the previous two years, while dividends to the Class A shareholders have stayed the same., The complaint goes on to say it appears that Viola and the Board have knowingly used cash that rightfully belongs to the Class A shareholders in ways that benefit Viola and other pre-IPO owners. I think there was my company, A4, and one other company that didnt have anyone in it questioned. Most all of themI dont remember any that wasnt. And much like the gestalt of the popular culture takes root, and it is least commonly denominated, people would just almost organically attract to antiwar protests. I had to actually leave Fort Campbell, and I took a compassionate reassignment to Fort Hamilton in New York Cityactually, Fort Dix, and I got assigned to Fort Hamilton. 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. COPYRIGHT 2014 WEST POINT CENTER FOR ORAL HISTORY. Even if he didnt know what he was talking about, he sounded like he knew what he was saying. I dont have objective evidence. Well, these drill rolls actually existed, and they were physical lists on paper, and these cadets, many cadets would sit down and just put checks down next to peoples names if they even thought they mightve ever cheated. 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. So Ill give you an example, From the 101st Airborne to the Trading Floor. I think the exercise was handed in over the holiday period of 19. You have to study battle. What was it like to be here in the period immediately after the end of the Vietnam War? Someone should take a look at the management contract for the arena. [14] Prior to and following the Gulf War, Viola earned millions of dollars betting on oil prices. People always say you learn to be a leader at West Point, but I find it hard to imagine how you teach leadership. And I remember a real almost unquestioning allegiance to the idea that this was Gods will, and fate had interceded in this mans adventure, the way it was meant to be, and he died an honorable death. What was your. I mean even those whocertainly those who actually did it must have, but did the rest of the class feel tainted by this? In World War II. Tell me how you experienced that. Whats Next? A definite weight was put on my class because of the honor scandal, and I remember my First Class summerI was a squad leader in the first detail at Beast Barrackshaving to watch approximately somewhere it seems like 50 or 60 of my classmates wear the same uniform every day different than what we were wearing. Mr. Viola started his career in the financial services industry on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange and rose to be Vice Chairman (1993-1996) and Chairman (2001-2004). [10], Viola graduated with a bachelor's degree from the United States Military Academy in 1977 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. 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. At a peak. So for me, it was quite an abrupt andbut heartening transition. Panthers owner and Army secretary nominee Vincent Viola allegedly punched a concessions worker at a racehorse auction in Saratoga Springs, New York, on Aug. 8, according to a police report. My mom had two of her brothers and five nephews in combat. at Columbia Law School. People, soldiers dont judge other soldiers. 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