LAZARD CANADA - Key Persons
Alejandro Capote Garza joins Lazard as Managing Director
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Group Executive Director
- Independent Board Member
- Member of the Officers & Senior Leaders Team
Alexandra Soto is Lazard Chief Operating Officer, a Group Executive Director on the group management board, and a Senior Partner with over 33 years of investment banking experience.
As a senior banker, she specializes in cross-border M&A transactions across multiple sectors and has spent her career between London and Paris. Alexandra has always combined advisory roles with operational roles, having been COO of Lazard Paris, COO of Lazard Europe, Global COO of Financial Advisory, and now COO of Lazard group. In her role as Group Executive Director, Alexandra has a primary focus on making Lazard the preeminent place to work in the financial services industry across all businesses.
Alexandra has served as an independent board member on the Bull SA Board and Audit Committee, and subsequently sat on the Supervisory Board of Metro AG for five years. She has served on the board of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert and its Governance and Sustainability Committee since 2021, and currently sits on its Audit Committee.
Throughout her career, Alexandra has dedicated time and effort on promoting women in financial services and social mobility through education, having worked at Fondation Euris in Paris and being a founding trustee of the French Scholarship Foundation in London.
Alexandra is currently based in London.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer of Lazard Asset Management ( Deutschland ) GmbH
At Lazard, we support our clients with truly independent advice on their core strategic and financial matters leveraging our global network of exceptional talent which we continuously develop and expand. We firmly believe it is our people that differentiate us.
Job Titles:
- Board Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Chairman of Alper Investments, Inc
- Member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago
Andrew M. Alper has served as a Director of Lazard Ltd and Lazard Group since October 2012. He is the Chair of the Compensation Committee and sits on the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors.
Mr. Alper serves as the Chairman of Alper Investments, Inc. From 2006 to 2013, Mr. Alper served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EQA Partners, LP, a limited partnership engaged in a global macro strategy.
From 2002 to 2006, Mr. Alper served as President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Chairman of the New York City Industrial Development Agency, appointed to both positions by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Prior to that, Mr. Alper spent 21 years in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he was Chief Operating Officer of the Investment Banking Division from 1997 to 2000. Mr. Alper was co-head of the Financial Institutions Group of the Investment Banking Division of Goldman, Sachs & Co. from 1994 to 1997.
Mr. Alper is a member of the board of trustees of the University of Chicago and served as its Chairman from 2009 until 2015.
Mr. Alper also serves as a trustee of the University of Chicago Medical Center and the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.
Job Titles:
- Board Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
Ann-Kristin Achleitner has served as a Director of Lazard Ltd and Lazard Group since April 2021. She sits on the Audit Committee and the Nomination and Governance Committee of the Board of Directors.
Prof. Achleitner has spent over 30 years as an economist and educator and is a Distinguished Affiliated Professor at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), where she held the Chair of Entrepreneurial Finance between 2001 and 2020.
An accomplished academic with multiple honors and publications, Prof. Achleitner now acts primarily as a non-executive board director and venture investor. She currently sits on the Munich Re Supervisory Board and the Linde board of directors.
Prof. Achleitner is also a member of multiple boards of nonpublic institutions and foundations, such as the Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton) and the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech).
Previously, Prof. Achleitner served as a member of the board of directors of Deutsche Börse from 2016 until 2019 and was a member of the board of directors of Engie from 2012 until 2019.
Prof. Achleitner received her doctorates in business administration as well as law from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) in Switzerland. After a brief career as a management consultant with McKinsey, Prof. Achleitner held the Chair of Banking and Finance at the European Business School (EBS) in Oestrich-Winkel, Germany from 1995 to 2001.
Prof. Achleitner has served on multiple commissions for the German, Bavarian and Swiss governments, as well as for the EU commission, various World Economic Forum groupings, and multiple award juries.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Managing Director
- Managing Director and CEO, Lazard Brazil Investment Banking
Antonio Pereira is a Managing Director and CEO of Lazard Brazil, having joined Lazard in 2019.
Prior to joining Lazard, Antonio was Head of Investment Banking of Goldman Sachs in Brazil for several years. He began his career at Goldman in New York in 1996, transferring to Brazil in 1999, where he has served as a leading advisor and held several management roles.
Over the course of his career Antonio has acted as an advisor in a large number of transactions across sectors and products, including several of the largest and most complex landmark mergers, restructurings, IPOs and financing transactions in the region. Antonio also serves on the board of the St Paul´s School Foundation in São Paulo.
Antonio holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and minor in Economics from Tufts University.
Job Titles:
- General Counsel
- Member of the Officers & Senior Leaders Team
Prior to joining the firm, Chris was global General Counsel and a partner at Apollo Global Management, where he led and managed Apollo's legal, tax, and compliance team, and served on the firm's overall leadership team.
Between 2010 and 2017, Chris served in senior roles at the United States Department of the Treasury, including as Deputy General Counsel and then Chief of Staff.
Prior to Treasury, Chris served as Associate Counsel to the President at the White House, as a litigator at Williams & Connolly, and as a law clerk on the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Chris graduated with high distinction from Penn State University with a BS and honors in Biochemistry. He received his JD with distinction from Stanford Law School.
Job Titles:
- CEO, Lazard Fund Managers Ireland
Job Titles:
- Co - Head of Investment Banking for the DACH Region
Job Titles:
- Co - Head of Investment Banking for the DACH Region
There is no other firm that combines senior commitment, sophisticated advise, execution excellence and global relationships in a way that Lazard does - now for 175 years.
Job Titles:
- Garza Joins Lazard As Managing Director
Eugenio Garza y Garza joins Lazard as Managing Director
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Officers & Senior Leaders Team
- CEO of Asset Management
Evan L. Russo became Chief Executive Officer of Lazard's Asset Management business in June 2022. He previously served as Chief Financial Officer of Lazard Ltd and Lazard Group from October 2017 until October 2022.
Mr. Russo has been a Managing Director of Lazard since 2009, and prior to becoming CFO was Co-Head of Lazard's Capital Markets and Capital Structure Advisory practice. He joined Lazard as a Director in 2007.
Prior to joining Lazard, he worked for Goldman Sachs & Co. in the Investment Banking Division, and prior to that, for Barclays Capital. He began his career as a corporate attorney with the law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.
Mr. Russo received an undergraduate degree from Queens College, a law degree from Columbia University School of Law, and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Board Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Chairman and CEO of Deezer
- Vice Chairman and Lead Independent Director of the Board of Directors of AccorHotels and Is a Governor of the American Hospital
Iris Knobloch has served as a Director of Lazard Ltd and Lazard Group since April 2018. She is Chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee and a member of the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.
Ms. Knobloch is Chairwoman and CEO of Deezer, a publicly traded company on EuroNext Paris that merged with the special purpose acquisition company, I2PO, for which Ms. Knobloch served as Chairwoman and CEO, in July 2022.
Ms. Knobloch is also the Vice Chairman and Lead Independent Director of the board of directors of AccorHotels and is a governor of the American Hospital in Paris.
Ms. Knobloch was a senior executive with WarnerMedia and its predecessor companies from 1996 to 2021, most recently as President of WarnerMedia in France, Germany, the Benelux, Austria and Switzerland. Before that, she was in charge of Time Warner's International Relations and Strategic Policy for Europe.
Previously, Ms. Knobloch was an attorney with Norr, Stiefenhofer & Lutz and with O'Melveny & Myers in Munich, New York and Los Angeles.
Ms. Knobloch was a member of the board of directors of LVMH Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton from April 2019 to July 2021 and a member of the board of directors of Central European Media Enterprises from April 2014 to June 2018.
She received a J.D. degree from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet and an L.L.M. degree from New York University.
Job Titles:
- Laura Nateri Country Head
Lazard is a leading financial advisor in Korea with one of the most experienced and largest on-the-ground teams, providing in-depth local insight and objective financial advice. Our singular focus is on the client, providing creative solutions while maintaining a long-term perspective.
Job Titles:
- Board Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Board of Directors of General Motors
Jane L. Mendillo has served as a Director of Lazard Ltd and Lazard Group since April 2016. She is a member of the Audit Committee and the Workplace and Culture Committee of the Board of Directors.
Ms. Mendillo has spent over 30 years in the fields of endowment and investment management. As the CEO of the Harvard Management Company from 2008 to 2014, she managed Harvard University's approximately $37 billion global endowment and related assets across a wide range of public and private markets.
Ms. Mendillo was previously the Chief Investment Officer at Wellesley College for six years. Prior to that, she spent 15 years at the Harvard Management Company in various investment roles. Earlier in her career she was a management consultant at Bain & Co. and worked at the Yale Investment Office.
Ms. Mendillo is a member of the board of directors of General Motors. She is also on the board of directors of the Berklee College of Music. She also serves as Senior Investment Advisor and Trustee to the Old Mountain Private Trust Company.
She is a graduate of Yale College and the Yale School of Management.
Job Titles:
- Executive Chairman
- Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors
Kenneth M. Jacobs is Executive Chairman of Lazard. He served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lazard from November 2009 to September 2023. He joined Lazard in 1988.
Mr. Jacobs has advised on some of the most high-profile and iconic financial transactions of the past 35 years. He has provided advice to Lazard clients across a wide range of industries, and participated in numerous landmark transactions for clients located across the globe. In his role as Executive Chairman, Mr. Jacobs' primary focus continues to be advising clients of the firm.
Mr. Jacobs serves on the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago and the Brookings Institution. He is also a Director of the Partnership for New York City, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2017, he was inducted into the French Legion of Honor.
Mr. Jacobs earned a BA in Economics at The University of Chicago in 1980 and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1984.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director & Head of Investment Banking, Japan
Kenta Akiyama joined Lazard in 2005 and was appointed Head of Investment Banking Japan in 2021. Throughout his career, he has focused on M&A advisory across all industries mainly in cross-border context. From 2006 to 2007, he was on secondment to Lazard NY office, and was involved in various cross-Atlantic/Pacific M&A transactions.
Prior to joining Lazard, he worked in the M&A department of Daiwa Securities SMBC.
Japan has $14 trillion of individual financial assets, of which only 4.5% is invested in mutual funds compared to 12.6% in the U.S. Lazard has a great opportunity to expand our mutual fund business by leveraging our trust with Japanese institutional investors, which we have cultivated during our 35-year presence in Japan.
Lan Yan - Managing Director
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Independent Board Member in Ch Teau De Versailles
- Managing Director and Head of Greater China Investment Banking
Lan Yan joined Lazard as Managing Director and Head of Greater China Investment Banking in April 2011. She is today Vice Chairman of Investment Banking / Chairman and CEO of Greater China. She leads the Lazard Greater China team in cooperation with the Lazard global network to advise in cross-border M&A transactions involving Chinese companies. Lan Yan joined Gide Loyrette Nouel in Paris in 1991, became partner on 1998, then Chief Representative of GLN Beijing office. She has rich experience on foreign companies' investment in China.
Ms. Yan is the independent board member in Ch teau de Versailles since Nov 2018.
Our Asset Management business has steadily grown in size, and the number of associates we have on the ground reflects that. We see great opportunities for growth in Asset Management.
Job Titles:
- Laura Nateri Country Head
Lazard Madrid was established in 1999, solidifying Lazard's franchise as a preeminent financial advisor to blue chip companies in Spain.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Member of the Officers & Senior Leaders Team
Prior to joining Lazard, Ms. Betsch worked at Citadel, where she helped lead the finance and accounting function since 2018.
Ms. Betsch was previously a partner at PwC, where she spent 17 years in a variety of audit and advisory roles serving global investment banks and other financial institutions. She also completed a two-year fellowship program supported by the Federal Reserve Board's Chief Accountant.
Job Titles:
- Board Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Joins Lazard As Chief Accounting Officer
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Officers & Senior Leaders Team
Job Titles:
- President of the Officers & Senior Leaders Team
Job Titles:
- Lead Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
Shen Tan - Managing Director
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Managing Director and Head of Distribution of Lazard Asset Management
Wassim Al-Khatib joins Lazard as Chief Executive Officer, Middle East and North Africa Investment Banking