Peter Orszag is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Lazard, a 176-year-old global financial advisory and asset management firm. His leadership at Peter Orszag Lazard began in October 2023, when he became CEO, followed by his appointment as Chairman on January 1, 2025. Before taking charge of the firm, Orszag spent seven years building his career within Lazard. His experience also includes serving as Director of the Congressional Budget Office and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Barack Obama, giving him a distinctive background in both government economic policy and global finance.
During his tenure at Lazard, Orszag has focused on enhancing the firm’s strategic advisory capabilities, particularly in navigating complex financial landscapes and fostering innovation in asset management. His robust understanding of economic trends and fiscal policies has allowed him to provide invaluable insights to clients, particularly during times of market volatility. Under his guidance, Lazard has strengthened its global presence, expanding its services in emerging markets and embracing digital transformation to better serve a diverse clientele. Orszag’s vision for the future involves not only sustaining the firm’s legacy but also adapting to the rapidly evolving financial environment, ensuring that Lazard remains at the forefront of the industry.
His name is searched alongside “Lazard” so often because his career represents an unusual blend: a PhD economist and government budget chief who reinvented himself as a Wall Street dealmaker, then rose to run one of the world’s most storied investment banks. This article lays out exactly who he is, how his career unfolded, what his role at Lazard actually involves today, and what’s publicly known and not known about his personal life.
At a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Peter Richard Orszag |
| Known as | Peter Orszag |
| Born | December 16, 1968, in Boston, Massachusetts |
| Education | Phillips Exeter Academy; Princeton University (BA, summa cum laude); London School of Economics (MSc, PhD) |
| Current role | CEO and Chairman, Lazard |
| At Lazard since | May 2016 |
| CEO since | October 1, 2023 |
| Chairman since | January 1, 2025 |
| Prior notable roles | Director, Office of Management and Budget (2009–2010); Director, Congressional Budget Office (2007–2008); Vice Chairman, Citigroup |
| Spouse | Bianna Golodryga (m. 2010), senior global affairs analyst at CNN |
Why Peter Orszag Is Notable
Orszag’s relevance to a search about “Peter Orszag Lazard” comes down to one central fact: he runs the firm. Peter R. Orszag is CEO and chairman of Lazard, the preeminent global financial advisory and asset management firm, and he has led the firm and been a board director since October 2023. Lazard is one of the largest independent investment banks in the world, advising corporations and governments on mergers, restructurings, and capital raising, in addition to running a large asset management business.
What makes his tenure notable isn’t just the title it’s the trajectory that got him there. He isn’t a career investment banker who worked his way up through traditional deal teams from the start. He arrived at Lazard already carrying a reputation as one of the most prominent economists to have served at the top of the U.S. federal budget apparatus.
Early Life and Education
Public records and Wikipedia’s biography indicate Peter Richard Orszag was born December 16, 1968, in Boston, Massachusetts. According to his official Lazard and personal-site biographies, his senior thesis was titled “Congressional Oversight of the Federal Reserve: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives,” reflecting his early interest in economic policy and institutions.
He attended Phillips Exeter Academy before going on to Princeton University, where he graduated summa cum laude. He then pursued graduate study in the UK, earning both a master’s degree and a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His doctoral thesis, according to Wikipedia, was titled “Dynamic analysis of regime shifts under uncertainty: Applications to hyperinflation and privatization” (1997) an early sign of his lifelong interest in applying rigorous economic modeling to real-world policy problems.
Career Beginnings: Economics and Government Service
Orszag’s career did not begin in finance. He started as an academic economist and moved quickly into government service. His official biography notes that he served in the Clinton Administration at the Council of Economic Advisers and as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy.
His most prominent early roles came in the mid-to-late 2000s:
- Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO): He led the CBO from January 18, 2007, to November 25, 2008, the nonpartisan agency responsible for providing Congress with independent budgetary and economic analysis.
- Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB): Under President Barack Obama, Orszag served as the 37th Director of the OMB, in office from January 20, 2009, to July 30, 2010. This is arguably the role for which he became best known publicly he oversaw the federal budget through the depths of the 2008–2009 financial crisis and the early debates over the Affordable Care Act.
During this period, Orszag developed a reputation for pushing health care cost containment onto the center of the fiscal policy conversation. As one biography summarizes, under his leadership the CBO and OMB significantly increased attention to the role rising health care expenditures played in the government’s long-term fiscal strategy. A colleague once described him, according to a quote featured on his LinkedIn profile, as “far and away the most healthcare savvy Director of the OMB that the White House has ever had.”
The Move to Wall Street: Citigroup
After leaving the Obama administration in 2010, Orszag transitioned into private-sector finance a move that surprised some observers given his academic and policy background. He joined Citigroup, where he became Vice Chairman of Corporate and Investment Banking and Chairman of the Financial Strategy and Solutions Group.
As one forum retrospective on his career put it, he had never worked in investment banking before this, and his first position in the field was as Vice Chairman of Citigroup’s corporate and investment banking division an unusually senior entry point for someone without prior deal-making experience, made possible by his high-level policy credentials and relationships.
Joining Lazard: From Vice Chairman to Global M&A Leader
Orszag joined Lazard in May 2016. According to a Bloomberg report from the time of his hire, Lazard brought him on as a managing director and vice chairman of investment banking, based in New York, with CEO Kenneth Jacobs citing Orszag’s expertise in both finance and public policy.
From there, his responsibilities expanded steadily:
- July 2018 – June 2019: He became the firm’s head of North American mergers & acquisitions and global co-head of healthcare.
- April 2019 – September 2023: He was promoted to CEO of Financial Advisory, leading Lazard’s advisory businesses serving companies and governments across the globe.
While running Financial Advisory, Orszag also left a mark on the firm’s strategic direction beyond pure deal advice. According to Wikipedia, he created Lazard Geopolitical Advisory in 2022 while serving as CEO of Financial Advisory, and during that period also expanded the firm’s use of data analytics and AI across its banking and asset management businesses.
Becoming CEO and Chairman of Lazard
In May 2023, Lazard announced its succession plan. The Wall Street Journal reported at the time that Lazard named Orszag as its next CEO, a transition that was formalized later that year. He officially became CEO effective October 1, 2023, and, according to Lazard’s own announcement, Kenneth Jacobs the outgoing CEO moved into the role of Executive Chairman during a transitional period.
Orszag’s authority was consolidated further at the start of 2025. As one profile puts it, his role was expanded to CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lazard effective January 1, 2025, meaning he now holds both the top executive position and the top governance position at the firm simultaneously.
What Orszag’s Role Involves Today
As CEO and Chairman, Orszag oversees Lazard’s full global operation both its Financial Advisory business (M&A, restructuring, capital markets advice, and geopolitical consulting) and its Asset Management arm, which manages client investment portfolios worldwide.
His central initiative since taking the top job has been a long-term growth plan the firm calls “Lazard 2030.” According to Lazard’s own investor materials, the strategy aims to double the firm’s revenue by 2030 while delivering annual shareholder returns of 10–15%, through strategic hiring, geographic and sector expansion, disciplined cost management, and increased investment in artificial intelligence. As part of that AI push, Lazard has developed a proprietary AI tool called LazardGPT, intended to improve client insights and internal productivity.
Orszag has described the concept underpinning Lazard’s advisory pitch as “contextual alpha” the broad insight and judgment needed to navigate macroeconomic, geopolitical, and other factors that help leaders see around the risks and opportunities in complex decisions. In Lazard’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings release, Orszag reported that the year had produced record revenue in Financial Advisory and record gross inflows in Asset Management, calling it evidence that the Lazard 2030 strategy was gaining traction.
Progress updates from Lazard leadership have been consistently upbeat. In early 2025, Orszag told CNBC, “We’re on our pathway to Lazard 2030. We’re ahead of schedule…the year is looking strong,” and noted that despite being a firm founded in 1848, Lazard felt like it was “on the move.”
Board Memberships and Outside Affiliations
Beyond his day job, Orszag holds a range of institutional affiliations that reflect his continued footing in both the policy and academic worlds. According to Lazard’s official biography, he is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, and he serves on the boards of the Institute for Advanced Study, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and Mount Sinai Hospital.
He has also remained an active public commentator on economic policy. In September 2025, The Atlantic published an essay by Orszag titled “The Economy Is Turning Into a Black Box,” in which he examined declining reliability in official government statistics citing outdated survey methods, falling survey participation, and chronic underfunding as key culprits, and argued for supplementing government data with private-sector sources such as payroll and transaction data.
Personal Life
According to Wikipedia’s biography, Orszag was previously married to Cameron Hamill from 1997 until their divorce in 2006. He has since remarried; multiple sources confirm he is married to journalist Bianna Golodryga, a senior global affairs analyst and correspondent with CNN, and the couple resides in New York City. Wikipedia’s infobox lists that he has five children, though the article does not provide further public detail on them, and this outlet has not found additional independently verifiable information beyond that basic figure. Where personal details are not publicly documented in detail, it’s best to treat them as private rather than speculate.
What Sets Orszag’s Path Apart
A few things make Orszag’s career trajectory genuinely unusual, and worth understanding if you’re trying to make sense of why “Peter Orszag Lazard” is such a common search pairing:
- He’s a policy economist running an investment bank. Most bank CEOs come up through trading floors or deal teams. Orszag came up through the CBO and OMB agencies focused on nonpartisan analysis and federal budgeting, not corporate finance.
- He entered banking at the top, not the bottom. His first private-sector finance job, at Citigroup, was already a vice chairman-level position, a direct result of the credibility and network he built in government.
- His rise inside Lazard was fast by industry standards. From joining as a vice chairman in 2016 to becoming CEO in 2023 roughly seven years he moved through several senior operating roles (M&A head, healthcare co-head, Financial Advisory CEO) before taking the top job.
- He’s tying the firm’s growth story to AI and geopolitics, two themes not traditionally associated with 19th-century-founded investment banks, but which he has made central to Lazard’s forward strategy.
FAQs About Peter Orszag and Lazard
Is Peter Orszag the CEO of Lazard?
Yes. He has been CEO since October 1, 2023, and also holds the title of Chairman as of January 1, 2025.
What did Peter Orszag do before joining Lazard?
He was Vice Chairman of Corporate and Investment Banking at Citigroup. Before that, he served in the U.S. government as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (2009–2010) and Director of the Congressional Budget Office (2007–2008).
When did Peter Orszag join Lazard?
He joined in May 2016 as a managing director and vice chairman of investment banking.
What is “Lazard 2030”?
It’s the firm’s long-term growth strategy, launched under Orszag’s leadership, aiming to double Lazard’s revenue by 2030 through hiring, expansion, AI investment, and cost discipline.
Who is Peter Orszag married to?
He is married to Bianna Golodryga, a senior global affairs analyst and correspondent for CNN. His first marriage, to Cameron Hamill, ended in divorce in 2006.
Where did Peter Orszag go to school?
Phillips Exeter Academy for high school, Princeton University for his undergraduate degree (summa cum laude), and the London School of Economics for his master’s and PhD.
Conclusion
Peter Orszag’s connection to Lazard is straightforward at its core he is the firm’s CEO and Chairman, having taken over in October 2023 and consolidated both titles at the start of 2025. What makes his story worth understanding in more depth is the unusual road that led there: a PhD economist who ran the nation’s budget office during a financial crisis, then reinvented himself on Wall Street, rising through Lazard’s ranks in under a decade to lead one of the world’s most recognized advisory firms. Today, his primary public focus is executing “Lazard 2030,” the firm’s plan to double revenue and expand its footprint in AI-driven advisory work through the end of the decade.
Read Also: Peter Orszag: The Remarkable Economist Leading Wall Street