Mark A. Walker to Join Lazard as a Senior Advisor to Global Sovereign Advisory Group

NEW YORK & PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lazard Ltd (NYSE:LAZ) today announced that Mark A. Walker, former Managing Partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, has joined Lazard, effective immediately. Mr. Walker will serve as a Senior Advisor to Lazard’s global Sovereign Advisory Group, based in Paris.

“It is fitting and appropriate that I can now bring my experience and perspectives to Lazard’s leading sovereign financial advisory business and its clients.”

“Mark Walker is widely recognized as having advised on many of the world’s landmark sovereign debt matters, which have become models for the management of international debt crises,” said Matthieu Pigasse, head of Lazard Financial Advisory in France and of the firm’s global Sovereign Advisory Group. “We have worked with Mark on a number of client assignments and have admired him over the years. We look forward to adding his unmatched expertise to our global sovereign advisory team.”

“I have had the great fortune to have worked with the world’s best attorneys at Cleary Gottlieb, and on some of the most complex and important sovereign and corporate assignments around the globe over the past four decades,” said Mr. Walker. “It is fitting and appropriate that I can now bring my experience and perspectives to Lazard’s leading sovereign financial advisory business and its clients.”

Mr. Walker has advised the Mexican government on debt management, energy-related matters and infrastructure finance, has advised the governments of Argentina, Colombia, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, the Ivory Coast, Peru, the Philippines, Slovenia and South Korea on external debt matters and has advised private sector debtors and creditors in negotiating complex international financings and restructurings. He recently advised the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the US Treasury relating to the financial crisis, and was an expert advisor to the G-30 Financial Reform Working Group chaired by Paul A. Volcker.

Mr. Walker joined Cleary Gottlieb’s New York office in 1970, after working in its Paris and Brussels offices, beginning in 1966. He became a partner in 1975, and served as Cleary Gottlieb’s Managing Partner for six years until the end of 2010. He received an LL.B. degree from Yale Law School and an undergraduate degree from Stanford University.

Since the beginning of the financial crisis that began in mid-2007, Lazard has been at the forefront of providing independent advice to governments and governmental agencies challenged by the current troubled environment, and has advised a number of countries with respect to sovereign debt.

About Lazard

Lazard, one of the world’s preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms, operates from 42 cities across 27 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and South America. With origins dating back to 1848, the firm provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, strategic matters, restructuring and capital structure, capital raising and corporate finance, as well as asset management services to corporations, partnerships, institutions, governments and individuals. For more information on Lazard, please visit www.lazard.com.