Lower Wattage Star Power at Lazard

Posted by: Peter Carbonara on November 17

The board of Lazard Freres today named Kenneth Jacobs as the firm’s new CEO. Jacobs, 51, is a twenty two year veteran of the venerable firm and currently CEO of Lazard North America. Jacobs was tapped over a number of internal candidates who were considered more likely picks. Read more about that here and here What the choice means for the bank is unclear. Unlike his very high profile predecessor, legendary dealmaker Bruce Wasserstein, Jacobs has kept his head down, giving few interviews.
“When you cut through it all we have a very simple business model, which we’ve adhered to almost religiously, which is built around intellectual capital and the advice business,” Jacobs said in an interview with Investment Dealers Digest in January.

If Wasserstein was an M&A Sean Connery, Jacobs at first look seems more like George Lazenby.