Richard Greco Jr. is an American businessman, educator, former United States Government official, and long-standing trustee and benefactor of educational, cultural, and civic institutions. He was appointed by President George W. Bush of the United States and confirmed by the Senate as the nation's 19th Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management and Comptroller) and served from 2004 to 2007.
In this role, he was the chief financial officer of the Department of the Navy, responsible for an annual budget of more than $130 billion and a financial management workforce of 9000 professionals, including budgeters, analysts, auditors, fiscal lawyers, Congressional relations officers, and financial operations personnel. The Department of the Navy would be equivalent to the 7th largest corporation in the world based on revenues. He also served as chairman of the Department of the Navy audit committee, a member of the Acquisition Integrity Board, and the executive committee of the United States Naval Academy. For exceptional service Greco was twice awarded the Department of the Navy's Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest civilian medal awarded by the Navy. In addition, Greco's Fiscal Year 2005 Department of the Navy Annual Financial Report was awarded the Gold Vision Award and was named one of the top 100 corporate annual reports in the world in the Overall category. During his tenure as Assistant Secretary, Greco also served for two years as National President of the American Society of Military Comptrollers, an association of 18,000 financial professionals.Department of Navy biography Greco's strategic vision for financial management at the Department of the Navy, entitled Transforming Today to Win Tomorrow, continued to guide the office of the Assistant Secretary for many years following his tenure and included long-term initiatives such as portfolio analysis and management, human capital development, private sector technology adoption, and many others.
In 2007 Richard Greco Jr. was named Managing Partner of the private investment firm Filangieri Capital Partners, which he led for ten years until his retirement in 2017. His investment portfolio in the United States and Italy included companies in the aerospace and defense, homeland security, medical software, IP, AI, metal mechanics, and water treatment industries. As a principal investor with a seat on the board of directors or executive committee of most portfolio companies, Greco provided management with strategic, operational, and financial guidance, including matters of corporate governance, internationalization, shareholder value creation, restructuring, and M&A. Greco also served as a member of the board of directors of the Quadrivio Investment Group based in Milan, Italy, with more than $1.4 billion of private equity assets under management. Since 2007, Greco has also served as a senior advisor to the international business strategy firm The Scowcroft Group, based in Washington, D.C., founded and managed by former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft. He also served as a senior advisor to the fixed-income asset manager Muzinich & Co., based in New York City, where he helped establish a corporate debt fund for small and medium-sized businesses in Italy and as a member of the Board of Advisors of the Morgan Stanley Journal of Applied Corporate Finance. In 2017, Greco exited his portfolio and retired from business.
Richard Greco Jr. is the founder and chairman of the Board of The Montfort Academy, a classical curriculum high school in the Archdiocese of New York. Widely recognized as a leader of the classical curriculum movement, The Montfort Academy has inspired other classical high schools to open around the country. Mr Greco also has served on the board of trustees or board of advisors of other civic and not-for-profit organizations, including The Hudson River Museum and Planetarium; the Westchester County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Conservation (where he served as Vice Chairman); Untermyer Gardens; and The Navy League of the United States New York Chapter. He has written for the Longitude journal of international economy and is invited regularly to speak on matters of foreign policy, international finance, business strategy, corporate governance, business ethics, education, public service, and leadership.
Early life
Born in the Bronx and raised in Pelham Manor, New York, Richard Greco Jr. attended Prospect Hill Elementary School and Pelham Memorial High School. He was ranked first in his class at Pelham Memorial High School and attended Fordham University on a full academic Presidential scholarship. He studied chemistry at Fordham and received a B.S. in 1991, graduating Summa cum laude, in cursu honorum and was class valedictorian. Later, he attended the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University where he received an M.A. in international economics and American Foreign Policy. He also attended the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business where he was graduated with an M.B.A. in finance. During the time between college and graduate school Greco briefly attended medical school at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and was a high school teacher of physics, Italian, and Spanish.
Greco's first job after graduate school was as an associate at The Scowcroft Group in Washington, DC, where he advised investment fund managers and corporate executives about emerging markets, specifically in Africa, Asia, and the former Soviet Union. While at The Scowcroft Group, Greco assisted George H. W. Bush and Brent Scowcroft in editing A World Transformed, a book about the foreign policy of the United States in the post-Cold War era. In 1997, Greco joined the corporate finance advisory firm of Stern Stewart & Co and became a managing director, specializing in advising companies and government agencies on value creation. There, he oversaw Stern Stewart's expansion into Italy, with the joint venture of Ambrosetti Stern Stewart Italia. During this period, Greco became a regular lecturer at Bocconi University, the School of Management at the Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli, and the Italian Association of Financial Analysts. He later became manager of Stern Stewart's Government Services Division.
The Montfort Academy
In 1998, during his time at Stern Stewart, Greco founded The Montfort Academy, a Catholic high school in Mount Vernon, New York offering a classical curriculum focusing on academic excellence and character formation, with courses such as civics, geography, astronomy, rhetoric and debate, Latin, Greek, philosophy, and religion.http://www.themontfortacademy.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=61463&type=d&termREC_ID=&pREC_ID=328071 More than 700 students have attended The Montfort Academy's full-time and part-time programs, including the special Renaissance Invitational program. The Montfort Academy has a 100% college admissions rate. For the years 2005–2009, 2012–2013, 2014–2015, and 2020-2025 The Montfort Academy was named one of the best 50 Catholic high schools in America by the Cardinal Newman Society. The website Niche K12 has ranked The Montfort Academy in the top 20 private high schools in New York State and in the top 200 private high schools in America. The Montfort Academy's distinguished lecture series has featured notable persons such as former Senator Rick Santorum (a candidate in the 2012 primary season for President of the United States), former New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir, and former Vice Chairman of Goldmas Sachs and Under Secretary of State Robert Hormats, and Justin Muzinich, former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. Greco has served as president and chairman of the Board of The Montfort Academy since its founding.Montfort Academy website In 2015, Richard Greco Jr. was selected by the International Organization of Catholic Education at the United Nations to represent the United States at the Holy See World Congress called "Educating Today and Tomorrow." This quadrennial conference on the state and future of Catholic education fell in 2015 on the 50th anniversary of Gravissimum educationis, Pope Paul VI's Declaration on Christian Education and the 25th anniversary of Ex corde Ecclesiae, Pope John Paul II's document regarding Catholic colleges and universities. Greco's contribution to the conference was featured in the book, Testimonios, Educar Hoy y Mañana, Una pasion que se renueva, with a foreword written by Pope Francis and published by the Holy See Congregation for Catholic Education. In 2016, Greco addressed a roundtable of Catholic college Presidents at the Cardinal Newman Society in Washington, DC regarding classical education. Since 2017, when he retired from business, Greco has served as the full-time president of The Montfort Academy.
United States Government Service
In June 2002, Greco was appointed by President George W. Bush as a White House Fellow. He was assigned by the White House as a special assistant to the Secretary of Defense. During this fellowship year, he spent six weeks in Baghdad as an advisor in the Coalition Provisional Authority, providing advice on private sector and financial markets development, foreign direct investment, and currency exchange.Advance Questions for Richard Greco Jr., Senate Armed Services Committee When his fellowship was over, Greco was appointed acting director of Private Sector Development for Iraq, and in this capacity was a liaison between the international private sector and the Coalition Provisional Authority. On September 10, 2004, President of the United States George W. Bush nominated Greco as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management and Comptroller). After confirmation by the United States Senate, Greco served as the chief financial officer of the Department of the Navy from October 26, 2004, until 2007.
During Greco's tenure as Assistant Secretary, the Navy and Marine Corps continued to fight in the Iraq War, the War in Afghanistan (2001-2021), and elsewhere. In addition, the Navy and Marine Corps responded to the earthquake and tsunami in southeast Asia, the earthquake in Pakistan and India, and Hurricane Katrina. Greco helped the Department of the Navy incorporate best practices in corporate governance and link together financial, business, and information systems. Also during his tenure, Greco presented to Congress and inaugurated a long-term Financial Improvement Plan, established the first-ever Audit Committee, developed a financial efficiency index, a "just-in-time" cash management system, a portfolio analysis capability based on private sector analytical techniques, and a recruiting and retention program for the financial management workforce.Department of the Navy 2005 Annual Financial Report During his tenure the department also advanced its Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness effort and its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) initiative.Department of the Navy 2006 Annual Financial Report
Post-government