Rohatyn, Felix

Rohatyn, Felix (George)

(1928– ) financier, author; born in Vienna, Austria. His family fled the Nazis in the mid-1930s, settling first in France, then in the United States. He graduated from Middlebury College in 1948, joined Lazard Freres & Co., the investment house, that same year. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1950 and served in the army (including a tour in Korea) from 1951–53. He returned to Lazard and worked for the firm in Europe for several years during the 1950s. Named a general partner at Lazard in 1961, he earned a reputation as a master arranger of corporate deals and mergers. He headed the New York Stock Exchange's crisis committee during a difficult period in 1970–71, working to supply financing to keep tottering companies from collapse. As unsalaried chairman of New York City's Municipal Assistance Corp. in the late 1970s, he was credited with the key role in rescuing the nation's largest city from bankruptcy. In later years he wrote extensively on economic issues, revealing generally liberal sympathies in relating them to America's social problems.