Peter Orszag runs Lazard, one of the world’s best-known financial advisory firms, but he spent the first half of his career inside the U.S. government. He directed the Congressional Budget Office, then President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget, before moving to Wall Street. This article traces that path in full and lays out what’s actually documented about his current pay, since — unlike most executive profiles — real, SEC-filed numbers exist for this one.
Who Is Peter Orszag?
Peter Richard Orszag was born on December 16, 1968, in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. Today he serves as CEO and Chairman of Lazard, a role he’s held since January 2025. He built his career across two distinct worlds — federal budget policy and investment banking, detailed further on his Wikipedia page — and he’s written extensively about economics and health care along the way.
Education and Early Career
Orszag attended Phillips Exeter Academy before earning a B.A. in economics, summa cum laude, from Princeton University. He then studied at the London School of Economics, earning both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in economics. The London School of Economics named him a Marshall Scholar in 1991, and he later joined Phi Beta Kappa.
He began his government career during the Clinton administration, serving as a senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers from 1995 to 1996 and as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy from 1997 to 1998. After leaving the White House, he co-founded a consulting group, Sebago Associates, which later merged into Competition Policy Associates. FTI Consulting acquired that firm for a reported $70 million in 2005.
Government Service: CBO and OMB
President George W. Bush’s Congress appointed Orszag as Director of the Congressional Budget Office in January 2007, a nonpartisan role he held until November 2008. President Obama then tapped him to direct the Office of Management and Budget, a Cabinet-level post he held from January 2009 to July 2010, during the height of the financial crisis and the push for federal health care reform.
The Move to Citigroup — and the Criticism It Drew
Orszag joined Citigroup in January 2011, taking on roles including Vice Chairman of Corporate and Investment Banking and Chairman of the firm’s Financial Strategy and Solutions Group. The timing drew sharp criticism. Citigroup still relied on federal support from the financial crisis at the time, and commentators across the political spectrum, including The Atlantic’s James Fallows and outlets like OpenSecrets, called the move a textbook case of the “revolving door” between government service and Wall Street. Orszag defended the move publicly, arguing his White House work on health care and the budget had little overlap with the bank bailout itself. No regulatory body ever found wrongdoing in the move — the criticism stayed in the realm of public and media commentary, not legal action.
Building a Second Career at Lazard
Orszag joined Lazard as Vice Chairman of Investment Banking and a managing director in May 2016, after five years at Citigroup. Lazard named him Global Co-Head of Healthcare in 2018 and later gave him the additional role of Head of North American M&A. In April 2019, he took over as CEO of Lazard’s Financial Advisory business, overseeing the firm’s advisory work for corporations and governments worldwide.
Rising to CEO and Chairman
Lazard’s board elected Orszag CEO of the entire firm effective October 1, 2023, with then-CEO Kenneth Jacobs shifting to Executive Chairman. Lazard expanded his role again on January 1, 2025, naming him Chairman of the Board as well.
What Peter Orszag Actually Earns
Because Lazard trades publicly on the NYSE, Orszag’s pay shows up in the company’s SEC-filed proxy statements — real disclosed figures, not blog estimates. For fiscal year 2023, compensation-tracking sources citing Lazard’s proxy report roughly $30.8 million in total compensation, split between about $4.9 million in cash and $25.8 million in equity awards; that figure largely reflects his prior role running Financial Advisory before his October 2023 promotion. For fiscal year 2025, sources diverge slightly depending on methodology: one aggregator lists total compensation around $13.7 million, while Lazard’s own proxy summary describes a $14.1 million incentive award contributing to about $15 million in total compensation for the year. Those figures aren’t the same as his personal net worth, which no source discloses — this article reports pay only, not a wealth estimate.
Writing, Boards, and Public Commentary
Orszag built a long parallel career as a columnist, writing first for The New York Times and later as a regular contributor to Bloomberg Opinion, covering economics, health care, and political economy. He co-authored Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America and, with Nobel laureate economist Peter Diamond, Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach. He also serves on the boards of the Institute for Advanced Study, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and Mount Sinai Hospital, and belongs to the National Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Orszag was married to Cameron Hamill from 1997 to 2006. He married journalist Bianna Golodryga, a senior global affairs analyst at CNN, in 2010. Together they have five children.
FAQs
What is Peter Orszag’s current job?
He’s CEO and Chairman of Lazard, a global financial advisory and asset management firm, a role he’s held in full since January 2025.
What government positions did Peter Orszag hold?
He directed the Congressional Budget Office from 2007 to 2008, then served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Obama from 2009 to 2010.
Why was Peter Orszag’s move to Citigroup controversial?
He joined Citigroup in early 2011, shortly after leaving OMB, while the bank still relied on federal crisis-era support. Commentators criticized the timing as a “revolving door” case, though no regulatory finding of wrongdoing followed.
How much does Peter Orszag make as CEO of Lazard?
His most recent SEC-disclosed compensation, for fiscal year 2025, totals roughly $13.7 million to $15 million depending on the source’s methodology. That figure reflects annual pay, not his overall net worth.
Is Peter Orszag an economist?
Yes. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics and spent much of his early career as a government economist before moving into investment banking.
Methodology: This article draws on Wikipedia’s sourced biography, Lazard’s official leadership pages, contemporaneous 2010–2011 news coverage, and compensation data reported in Lazard’s SEC-filed proxy statements, as of August 2026. Compensation figures reflect disclosed pay, not a net-worth estimate, since no source discloses one. Last updated: August 22, 2026. A human editor reviewed this piece before publication.
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