Felix G. Rohatyn

Felix Rohatyn served as U.S. ambassador to France from 1997 to 2000 and is a commander of the French Legion of Honor. Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1928, Ambassador Rohatyn received his secondary school education in France. He has lived in the United States since 1942 and resides in New York City. Prior to his appointment as ambassador in Paris, Mr. Rohatyn was a managing director of the investment banking firm Lazard Frères & 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 in France. From 1975 to 1993, he was also chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation of the State of New York, where he managed the negotiations that enabled New York City to resolve its financial crisis in the late-1970s. He served as a member of the Board of Governors of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) from 1968 to 1972. He also served on the boards of several NYSE-listed corporations, as well as on the board of Groupe Lagardère. Mr. Rohatyn is presently an honorary trustee of Carnegie Hall in New York City and a trustee emeritus of Middlebury College. He also serves on the boards of LVMH Moët Hennessy–Louis Vuitton, Publicis Groupe S.A., and Rothschild Continuation Holdings AG. Ambassador Rohatyn served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1953. He received his B.S. degree in physics from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1949 and has also been awarded numerous honorary degrees. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Council of American Ambassadors, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, among other nonprofit organizations. Ambassador Rohatyn is currently the president of FGR Associates LLC, a firm that provides financial advice to corporations.