Peter Orszag

Peter R. Orszag is CEO of Financial Advisory at Lazard Freres & Co LLC, leading the firm's advisory businesses that serve companies and governments across the globe. He previously served as the firm's Head of North American Mergers & Acquisitions and Global Co-Head of Healthcare. Before joining Lazard in May 2016, Dr. Orszag served as Vice Chairman of Corporate and Investment Banking and Chairman of the Financial Strategy and Solutions Group at Citigroup, Inc. Prior to that, he served as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Contributing Columnist at the New York Times. Dr. Orszag previously served as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama Administration, a Cabinet-level position, from January 2009 until July 2010. From January 2007 to December 2008, Dr. Orszag was the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Under his leadership, the agency significantly expanded its focus on areas such as health care and climate change. Prior to CBO, Dr. Orszag was the Joseph A. Pechman Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. While at Brookings, he also served as Director of The Hamilton Project, Director of the Retirement Security Project, and Co-Director of the Tax Policy Center. During the Clinton Administration, he was a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and before that a staff economist and then Senior Advisor and Senior Economist at the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Orszag has also founded and subsequently sold an economics consulting firm. Dr. Orszag graduated summa cum laude in economics from Princeton University and obtained a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics, which he attended as a Marshall Scholar. He has coauthored or co-edited a number of books, including Protecting the Homeland (2006), Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America (2006), Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach (2004), and American Economic Policy in the 1990s (2002). Dr. Orszag serves on the Board of Directors of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, New Visions for Public Schools, and the Russell Sage Foundation. He is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and holds an honorary doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Orszag is married to Bianna Golodryga of CNN.