Peter Orszag

Peter R. Orszag is CEO and Chairman of Lazard, a leading global financial advisory and asset management firm. He assumed this dual leadership role in October 2023, expanding to include the Chairman title on January 1, 2025. His tenure has raised the firm's relevance and ambitions to provide sophisticated and differentiated advice and investment solutions for clients. In September 2023, Orszag set an ambitious goal to double Lazard's revenue by 2030.

Prior to becoming CEO, Orszag served as CEO of Financial Advisory, leading Lazard's advisory businesses serving companies and governments across the globe, from April 2019 to September 2023. In this role, he created Lazard Geopolitical Advisory in 2022 and expanded data analytics and AI capabilities for the firm's banking and asset management businesses. Before assuming the Financial Advisory leadership, he served as the firm's Head of North American M&A and Global Co-Head of Healthcare. Orszag joined Lazard in 2016 as Vice Chairman of Investment Banking.

Orszag earned an A.B. in economics from Princeton University (graduating summa cum laude) and a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics, where he attended as a Marshall Scholar. Before Lazard, he served as Vice Chairman of Corporate and Investment Banking and Chairman of the Financial Strategy and Solutions Group at Citigroup from 2011. He served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Barack Obama, where he helped craft the Affordable Care Act, and previously served as Director of the Congressional Budget Office. His government career began under the Clinton administration, where he served as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and as a Senior Economist and Senior Adviser on the Council of Economic Advisers.

Orszag is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Aspen Economic Strategy Group. He has recruited former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman to the Lazard board and oversaw the board appointment of former Ernst & Young chairman Stephen R. Howe Jr. in January 2024.

Career history

• Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Lazard (October 2023–present)
• CEO of Financial Advisory, Lazard (April 2019–September 2023)
• Head of North American M&A and Global Co-Head of Healthcare, Lazard (2018–2019)
• Vice Chairman of Investment Banking, Lazard (2016–2018)
• Vice Chairman of Corporate and Investment Banking and Chairman of the Financial Strategy and Solutions Group, Citigroup (2011–2016)
• Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Obama Administration (2009–2010)
• Director of the Congressional Budget Office (2007–2008)

What Orszag brings to his CEO and Chairman role at Lazard: Drawing on his extensive background in fiscal policy, healthcare reform, and complex financial strategy, Orszag combines deep expertise in macroeconomic challenges with the ability to advise governments and corporations on geopolitical dynamics. His track record of building and scaling advisory capabilities—from expanding the CBO's healthcare analysis to creating new business lines like Lazard Geopolitical Advisory—positions him to execute his ambitious growth strategy while maintaining the firm's reputation for independent, contextual advice during an era of macroeconomic uncertainty and shifting global markets.