Ken Karpman, the Pizzaboy Who Was a CEO

From giving tips to working for tips

Donna Hunter and Gail Deutsch report for ABC News that the economic recession has made a pizza delivery man out of an equity sales trader.

Ken Karpman, 45, currently earns $7.29 per hour delivering pizzas. It’s a job and he does it well. However, he can’t help but wonder when things began to go sour. As a corporate trader, the UCLA M.B.A. had what many would consider the perfect life. Family, $750,000 salary, big house, vacations - he had the world on a string.

“Life was good.”

Hunter and Deutsch write that Karpman was so confident with his place in the strong economy that he left his job in 2005 to start his own hedge fund. To pay for it, he ate through the family’s savings ($500,000) and took out a line of credit against his house. Unfortunately, Karpman ended up having to dissolve his hedge fund due to a lack of investors. The economy was down and he was without a job.

He hunted but came up empty. The Karpmans were in a terrible position, with no savings, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and a home in foreclosure.

Enter the pizza job

Desperate for quick payday loans, Karpman took a job at Mike’s Pizza & Deli Station in Clearwater, Florida. He is now earning $7.29 an hour plus tips. He’s grateful to have work, even if it sometimes takes him to the doors of neighbors to his old office building. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "Ken Karpman, the Pizzaboy Who Was a CEO"