Felix Rohatyn, Banker and Diplomat, Joins Council as Counselor

For further information contact: April Palmerlee, Director of Communications 434-9544

December 11, 2000, New York, NY – Felix G. Rohatyn, U.S. Ambassador to France and former Managing Director of the investment bank Lazard Frères, will join the Council as Counselor on January 1, 2001, Leslie H. Gelb, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, announced today. He will relinquish his present post at the end of December 2000.

“Ambassador Rohatyn’s experience in the diplomatic service and the financial sector will make him a great presence at the Council, especially at a time when we are focusing on tying together economics and other lines of foreign policy,” said Mr. Gelb. While at the Council, Felix Rohatyn will be working on a memoir and also expects to focus on aspects of European strategy for the United States.

Ambassador Rohatyn was a partner and Managing Director of Lazard Frères from 1961-97, when President Clinton appointed him as the ambassador to France. From 1975 to 1993, he was also Chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC) of the City of New York, where he managed the negotiations which enabled New York to pull itself out of its financial crisis in the late seventies. He served as a member of the Board of Governors of the New York Stock Exchange from 1968 to 1972. He served on the Board of Directors of several NYSE listed corporations.

Ambassador Rohatyn received his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Middlebury College and has also been awarded numerous honorary degrees. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was Vice-Chairman of Carnegie Hall and a member of many other non-profit organizations. He is a commander in the French Legion of Honor.