At the first global gathering of Lazard managing directors last December, after Peter Orszag had taken the helm of the investment banking boutique, the former economist invited a guest speaker to give a pep talk. His choice rankled many in the crowd. Orszag, who took over from longtime chief executive Ken Jacobs in October, welcomed Ralph Schlosstein, the retired head of Evercore.
, ‘you can’t talk about collegiality if we are gonna talk about attributable revenue’,” one person said of Rosenfeld’s comments at the meeting. “I did not go nuts. I appreciate Peter’s openness to debate and how he incorporates feedback,” Rosenfeld said in a statement provided to the FT. Another recently departed Lazard banker told the FT about a prominent banker who, he said, had snatched credit for a fee from him, an act he described as “unconscionable”.