Felix Rohatyn

Felix George Rohatyn (born May 29, 1928 in Vienna, Austria) is an American investment banker known for his role in preventing the bankruptcy of New York City in the 1970s, who also served as United States Ambassador to France.^[1] He was a long term advisor to the U.S. Democratic Party.^[2]

Career in finance

Rohatyn's family lived in France from 1934 to 1942, and fled the Holocaust with the help of Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas. ^[3] He received his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1949 following which he joined the New York office of the investment bank Lazard Frères under André Meyer. He was made partner in the firm in 1961 and later became Managing Director. While at the firm, he was involved in numerous large deals, most notably advising the conglomerate ITT in its various acquisitions. Rohatyn became widely known in the 1970s for successfully restructuring New York City's debt and resolving the city's fiscal crisis. While running MAC for the city of New York, Rohatyn continued his deal making at Lazard. While capping his take at the firm at 6%, Rohatyn continued to be the preeminent rainmaker at Lazard well into the 1990s, completing such deals such as the acquisition of Columbia by Sony.

In 1991, Rohatyn chose to back Ross Perot, a long time client, instead of Bill Clinton, which resulted in him losing the coveted Secretary of Treasury position, despite being the most prominent Democratic economic voice for dozens of years.^{[citation needed]} In 1996 the Clinton administration put forward his candidacy for the post of Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve, but a formal nomination was not made because of ideological opposition from Republicans. ^[4]

In 1990, he received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." Mr. Rohatyn is also the recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.

On August 22, 2006, he was appointed by Lehman Brothers as chairman of its international advisory committee and as a senior adviser to its chairman, Richard S. Fuld, Jr.

Diplomacy and foreign policy

Rohatyn served as United States Ambassador to France from 1997 to 2000 during the second Clinton Administration and is a Commander in the French Legion of Honor. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and serves as a Trustee for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Selected bibliography

• 1983: The Twenty-year Century: Essays on Economics and Public Finance. - New York: Random House. - ISBN 9780394534503
• 2003: With Béchat, Jean-Paul. - The Future of the Transatlantic Defense Community: Final Report of the CSIS Commission on Transatlantic Security and Industrial Cooperation in the Twenty-first Century. - Washington, D.C.: CSIS Press. - ISBN 9780892064250
• 2009: Bold Endeavors: How Our Government Built America, and Why It Must Rebuild Now. - New York: Simon & Schuster. - ISBN 9781416533122

References

External links

• Charlie Rose Show, 12/21/2000 The Life of Felix Rohatyn, 53 minutes, with Felix and Elizabeth Rohatyn and Hugh Carey.
• Rohatyn talk on New York City fiscal issues at Columbia University
• Namebase Entry
• Rohatyn author page and archive from The New York Review of Books
• Rohatyn biography from Center for Strategic and International Studies

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