Peter Orszag: Career, Leadership at Lazard, and Public Role

Peter Orszag is an American economist and banker who has worked at the center of both Washington policy and Wall Street advice. He is best known as a former White House budget director under President Barack Obama and, since October 2023, as the chief executive and chairman of the investment bank Lazard. Readers who look up his name usually want to confirm who he is, what he did in government, how he moved into finance, and what is actually known about his personal life. This article answers those questions using official biographies, company filings, and public statements, and it points out the places where information online is unclear or conflicting.

Quick Facts

Early Life and Education

Orszag was born in Boston and grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. He finished high school at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1987 and then studied economics at Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude in 1991. After Princeton he went to the London School of Economics as a Marshall Scholar, where biographical profiles say he earned a master’s degree in 1992 and a doctorate in economics in 1997.

Early Career in Washington and at Brookings

His first major public role came during the Clinton administration, where he worked as a senior economist and adviser at the Council of Economic Advisers in the mid-1990s and later as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. Around 1999 and 2000 he also taught macroeconomics at the University of California, Berkeley, and he started a small economics consulting firm that was later sold.

He then joined the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, where he became deputy director of Economic Studies and led projects on retirement security and tax policy. In the mid-2000s he helped found The Hamilton Project, an initiative focused on broad-based economic growth, and Brookings lists him as its first director. Sources give slightly different start and end dates for some of these early roles, so this article keeps to the general periods rather than exact months.

Running the Congressional Budget Office

Congressional leaders chose him to lead the Congressional Budget Office in January 2007, and he stayed until late 2008, with sources differing by a few weeks on the exact end date. The CBO is the nonpartisan agency that estimates the cost of legislation for Congress, so its director has to stay neutral while still explaining uncomfortable numbers.

During this period the agency widened its work on health care and climate policy. According to published profiles, he added about 20 full-time health analysts, which raised the team to roughly 50 people, and he said the office should do more than passively score whatever Congress sent it. Many observers later credited this preparation with helping Congress handle the coming health reform debate.

Peter Orszag at the Office of Management and Budget

President-elect Obama announced Orszag as his choice for budget director in late November 2008, and he served from January 2009 until July 2010. The Office of Management and Budget prepares the president’s budget and oversees how federal agencies spend money, which put him close to the biggest economic decisions of the period.

He played a major role in the $814 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the 2009 stimulus response to the financial crisis, and he was also a central figure in the push for the Affordable Care Act. KFF Health News described his core argument at the time as the idea that long-term fiscal health depended on bringing health care costs under control. After he announced his departure, former CBO director Robert Reischauer said it was unusual for a budget director to have such a deep hand in complex policy, while a source close to Orszag told reporters he wanted to focus on his upcoming wedding.

Moving From Government to Citigroup and Lazard

After leaving the White House he joined Citigroup, where he served as Vice Chairman of Corporate and Investment Banking and as Chairman of the Financial Strategy and Solutions Group. A 2011 New York Magazine article argued that the hire showed Citi wanted to be seen as part of the world of ideas and that a former budget director could get almost anyone to return a phone call. The move also fed a wider public conversation about people who shift between government and finance.

In May 2016 he joined Lazard as Vice Chairman of Investment Banking and a Managing Director. He became global co-head of its healthcare practice, took over North American mergers and acquisitions in 2018, and became CEO of the Financial Advisory business in 2019. Lazard’s board announced him as the next chief executive on May 26, 2023, and he took the top job in October 2023, with longtime leader Ken Jacobs moving to executive chairman for a time. Lazard now describes him as both CEO and Chairman.

Leading Lazard: The 2030 Plan and Recent Results

Soon after his promotion, Orszag set out a vision called Lazard 2030, which aims to double firmwide revenue by 2030 and deliver average annual shareholder returns of 10 to 15 percent. The plan relies on hiring more senior bankers, raising the revenue each managing director produces, and growing the asset management side. The early period was not easy, because Lazard’s 2023 annual letter reported that firmwide operating revenue fell 12 percent to $2.4 billion, and Bloomberg noted that the firm cut jobs to make room for new hires. He has also said the firm chose to replace about 40 percent of its advisory managing directors, according to reporting by Financial News.

More recent filings point to progress. Lazard’s 2026 proxy statement says the advisory business is ahead of its 2030 targets and that revenue per managing director reached $8.9 million, up from $6.4 million when he took over. On October 22, 2026, Lazard reported third-quarter adjusted net revenue of $805 million, and its chief financial officer, Tracy Farr, said firmwide adjusted revenue was up 11 percent from a year earlier. Orszag said Financial Advisory delivered record third-quarter revenue.

The picture is not perfectly smooth, since second-quarter 2026 net income under U.S. accounting rules was only $5 million, which the company linked partly to an unusually high tax rate that it said was not typical for the full year. Asset management has also grown, with assets under management reaching $285 billion at the end of June 2026 and new active ETF filings underway. He has also told Financial News that artificial intelligence could allow smaller teams under each managing director.

What Peter Orszag Has Said About the Economy

Orszag remains an active public voice on economic policy. During his time as a Bloomberg columnist and Brookings fellow he wrote often about health care spending, retirement security, and government budgets, and those themes still shape his thinking. In January 2026, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he discussed a LinkedIn article co-written with Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which argued that U.S. inflation could rise above 4 percent in 2026.

A month later, at the Wall Street Journal’s Invest Live event, he spoke about how artificial intelligence and geopolitics affect the economic outlook. He also described what Lazard calls “contextual alpha,” meaning the judgment needed to handle geopolitical, regulatory, and industry changes when advising clients.

Personal Life

Orszag is married to Bianna Golodryga, a journalist now at CNN, and the two married in September 2010, though sources differ by a day on the exact date. Public profiles say the couple have children, but the number and details vary between websites, and the family has asked for privacy in the past, so no names are listed here. He has also been married before, and profiles mention children from earlier relationships, but those details concern private individuals and are not covered in this article.

Common Confusions and Gaps Online

Several pages that rank for his name repeat outdated job titles, such as Vice Chairman at Citigroup or Lazard, even though he now leads the firm. Others copy older encyclopedia text, spell his surname incorrectly, or give conflicting dates for early roles like The Hamilton Project. Net worth figures also appear on low-quality websites without any source, so they should be treated with caution. A further source of confusion is that his brother, Jonathan Orszag, is also an economist, so some articles mix up the two men.

Frequently Asked Questions

How old is Peter Orszag? He was born on December 16, 1968, which makes him 57 as of late October 2026, and he turns 58 in December.

Is he related to other well-known people? Yes, his brother is the economist Jonathan Orszag, and his father, Steven Orszag, was a mathematics professor at Yale.

Has he written any books? He co-wrote Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach with Nobel laureate Peter Diamond, co-authored Aging Gracefully on retirement security, and co-edited American Economic Policy in the 1990s.

How much does Peter Orszag earn at Lazard? Lazard’s 2026 proxy statement lists his total 2025 compensation at about $14.1 million, with roughly 94 percent tied to performance.

Where will he speak next? Lazard has announced a fireside discussion at the BMO Financials Conference on November 10, 2026, with a webcast on Lazard’s investor relations website.

Does he belong to any professional organizations? Official biographies list his membership in the National Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations, and several biographies also mention board service at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Conclusion

Peter Orszag has built an unusual career that runs from academic economics to the Congressional Budget Office, the White House budget office, and now the top job at one of the oldest independent advisory firms in the world. His public record is well documented in official biographies and company filings, while many details about his private life are limited by choice, so readers should lean on those primary sources over unsourced summaries.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and is based on publicly available biographies, company filings, and news reports as of October 2026. It is not financial, investment, or legal advice, and some details may change. Readers should confirm current information with official sources such as Lazard’s investor relations materials.

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