Felix G. Rohatyn

Felix G. Rohatyn is the master financier and global economics and urban policy expert who, as chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC) of the City of New York, saved New York City from bankruptcy. Catapulted to international renown when he was called to rescue New York as The Daily News ran its famous headline, "Ford to City: Drop Dead," Rohatyn conceived and spearheaded the ingenious multi-billion dollar plan that saved America's largest city from financial meltdown.

One of the most original and influential economic thinkers in the world, Rohatyn has served on the Board of Governors of the New York Stock Exchange and on the boards of directors of a number of multi-national corporations. He led the NYSE Crisis Committee through a period of great instability in the 1970s, working to find financing that kept tottering companies from collapse. A visionary investment banker who guided a host of the world's largest corporations through the takeover wars of the 1980s, Rohatyn negotiated a number of historic mergers and acquisitions.

From the podium, Rohatyn applies his unparalleled experience and expertise to the great challenges of today: ensuring the integrity of financial markets, developing an agenda for corporate reform, protecting investors, creating a plan to rebuild America’s tattered infrastructure and maintaining foreign investment in our markets. Rohatyn argues that no amount of legislation can substitute for ethics, and that ethics will turn out to be more than a moral imperative--ethics will be good business and sell at a premium. He also believes that Americans, again, will sacrifice and answer the call to revive our market economy, if when the call comes it is fair.

Rohatyn served as United States Ambassador to France from 1997 to 2000. Prior to that, he was managing director of the investment banking firm, Lazard Frères & Company in New York, where he earned his reputation as a leading world authority on mergers and acquisitions. He is a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal and his columns and editorials also appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, Le Monde and The New York Review of Books. Rohatyn is also frequently a guest commentator on network news programs. His book, Money Games: My Journey Through American Capitalism, 1950-2000, will be published by Simon and Schuster in April 2003.

Rohatyn is a trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Comcast Corporation, Fiat, S.p.A., Suez, LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton) and Publicis Groupe, S.A. Rohatyn also is chairman of Aton Pharma, Inc., a pharmaceutical company involved in the research and development of drugs for the treatment of cancer. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of numerous other nonprofit organizations. He is a commander in the French Legion of Honor.

Rohatyn currently serves as president of Rohatyn Associates, LLC, which provides financial advice to corporations. He resides in New York City.