Perella, Joseph Robert

Perella, Joseph Robert

(1941– ) investment banker; born in Newark, N.J. A graduate of Lehigh University (1964) and the Harvard Business School (1972), he joined the First Boston Corp. in New York City in 1972, rising to vice-president. There, with colleague Bruce Wasserstein, he helped ignite the 1980s corporate takeover boom. He and Wasserstein formed their own partnership, Wasserstein, Perella & Co., in 1988; it quickly became one of the country's leading takeover firms.