Ambassador 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. He was a long term advisor to the U.S. Democratic Party.
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. 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. Rohatyn has also been awarded numerous honorary degrees. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a member of many other non-profit organizations. He is a Commander in the French Legion of Honor.
He was made partner in the firm in 1961 and later became Managing Director. Rohatyn became widely known in the 1970s for successfully restructuring New York City's debt and resolving the city's fiscal crisis. 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.
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.
Ambassador Felix G. Rohatyn serves as President of Rohatyn Associates LLC, a firm he founded in April 2001, that provides financial advice to corporations.
Before Rohatyn Associates, Mr. Rohatyn served as United States Ambassador to France from September 11, 1997 until December 28, 2000. Prior to his appointment as Ambassador in Paris, Mr. Rohatyn was a managing director of the investment-banking firm Lazard Freres & Co. LLC in New York, which he joined in 1948, becoming a partner in 1961. He retired from the firm in 1997 in order to take up his post as U.S. Ambassador to France. From 1975 to 1993, he was also Chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC) of the State of New York, where he managed the negotiations that enabled New York City to resolve its financial crisis in the late seventies. He served as a member of the Board of Governors of the New York Stock Exchange from 1968 to 1972. He also served on the boards of several NYSE listed corporations. He married to Elizabeth Fly Rohatyn, he is the father of three children
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 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Rohatyn