Kenneth Pasternak
Kenneth D. Pasternak (born February 21, 1954) is an American businessman and real estate investor. He co-founded Knight Trading Group with Walter Raquet and served as its CEO and chairman. Pasternak was born in Manhattan to Jewish immigrant parents and grew up in New York. He earned a high school diploma from Margaretville Central School and a B.S. in education from SUNY New Paltz in 1977.
He began his career in 1979 at Spear, Leeds & Kellogg as a librarian, eventually becoming a senior vice president and trading room manager before leaving in 1994. In 1994, he started Knight Trading Group, which went public in 1998. The company became a leading wholesale market maker in U.S. securities. Pasternak served as CEO from 1995 until his retirement on January 21, 2002, and he was on the board from 1998 to 2002. He also testified before the U.S. Senate in 2000 and 2001.
After Knight, Pasternak founded Chestnut Ridge Capital, a hedge fund, and later started KABR Real Estate Investment Partners with Adam Altman. KABR buys real estate in the New York City area and in Jacksonville, Florida, and has grown to manage funds with a value of over $1 billion (as of 2024). In 2009, KABR bought 85 Challenger Road in Ridgefield Park, NJ, for about $10.5 million and sold it in 2020 for around $60 million; Samsung Electronics America was a major tenant. In 2024, KABR raised more than $100 million for its sixth fund.
Pasternak is a general partner in the Belleayre Resort project at Catskill Park, New York. He has faced regulatory scrutiny in the past; the NASD fined him for supervisory violations, though a federal court ruled he was not liable, and in 2010 FINRA reversed a ruling involving Knight executives. He is married with three children and lives in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 15:05 (CET).