The Children First Foundation

The Children First Foundation is very pleased and proud to announce that after an absence of over two years, the Honorable Richard Greco, Jr. has returned to CFF’s Advisory Board. Mr. Greco had left the Board in September of 2004 when he was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as The Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management and Comptroller) on September 10, 2004, and was confirmed by the Senate one month later. In this capacity, Secretary Greco was responsible for directing and managing the financial activities of the Department of the Navy, including the preparation, justification, and execution of the $126 billion budget, all comptroller accounting, audit, treasury, fiscal, and legal functions, and the recruiting and training of a financial management workforce of 9,000 people. For exceptionally distinguished service in this role, the Secretary of the Navy awarded Mr. Greco the Department of the Navy's highest civilian award, the Distinguished Public Service Award, in May of 2005.

Prior to this position, Mr. Greco had a distinguished career in the public and private sectors. Previous to his appointment as The Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he was appointed a White House Fellow and was assigned to the Immediate Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he served as a special assistant. During his Fellowship year he served in Baghdad for six weeks as a special advisor to Presidential Envoy to Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, in the areas of private sector development and financial sector modernization. When his White House Fellowship ended, Mr. Greco was appointed Acting Director of Private Sector Development for Iraq at the Coalition Provisional Authority Representative’s Office, where he served as liaison between the international private sector and the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad.

Mr. Greco came to government from the corporate finance house of Stern Stewart & Co., where he was a vice president and managing director. He founded and led Ambrosetti Stern Stewart Italia, a joint venture in Italy that specialized in corporate valuation, fundamental analysis, and financial market research. He was a regular lecturer at the Luigi Bocconi School of Business in Milan, the LUISS School of Management in Rome, and the Italian Association of Financial Analysts, and he served on the board of the Italian-language Journal of Analytical Finance. While at Stern Stewart, Mr. Greco also managed the Government Services Division, which assisted government agencies and enterprises with the implementation of modern corporate finance practices.

Before joining Stern Stewart in 1997, Mr. Greco was an Associate at The Scowcroft Group, an investment advisory firm founded by General Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser to Presidents George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford. There, he advised hedge fund managers and corporate executives on managing the risks of investing in international markets. Also while at The Scowcroft Group, Mr. Greco assisted former President Bush and General Scowcroft in reviewing their book on the foreign policy of the first Bush Administration, A World Transformed.

Mr. Greco is founder and President Emeritus of The Montfort Academy, a classical high school for boys in Katonah, N.Y. whose curriculum emphasizes academic excellence and character formation. He currently serves as the national president of the American Society of Mi8tlarary Comptrollers (ASMC), a professional association of the nation’s 18,000 federal government comptrollers. In 2005, he was honored by the Italian American Museum of New York and by the Order of the Sons of Italy for his contributions to America’s cultural heritage. In 2004, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and was named Man of the Year by the National Federation of Italian-American Societies. In 2001, he was elected a term member of the Council of Foreign Relations.

Mr. Greco holds an M.B.A. in finance from The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, an M.A. from The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and a B.S. in Chemistry Summa Cum Laude, In Cursu Honorum from Fordham University.