Peter R. Orszag

  • Member of President Obama's Cabinet as Director of Office of Management and Budget (2009-2010)
  • Vice Chairmen of Investment banking and Managing Director, Lazard
  • Nonresident Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution
  • Bloomberg View Columnist

Peter Richard Orszag is an American banker and economist, and Head of North American M&A and Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at Lazard. He previously served as a Vice Chairman of Corporate & Investment Banking and Chairman of the Financial Strategy & Solutions Group at Citigroup, Inc. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Contributing Columnist at Bloomberg View.  He was previously President Barack Obama's director of the Office of Management and Budget. Orszag was the director of the Congressional Budget Office from 2007 to 2008. He served in two jobs in the Bill Clinton administration, as a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers from 1995 to 1996 and, in 1997, as top adviser to the director of the National Economic Council.

 

 



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Past Hosts Include:
  • NMS Management
  • Hedgeeye Risk Management 
  • IESE Business School, University of Navarra
  • Sterling Partners
Rave Reviews About Peter R. Orszag as a Speaker
The feedback on Peter Orszag was all very positive. His intelligence, candor and relevance were all commended. He received high marks from a well informed and very intelligent audience. Thank you to you and your staff for the perfect execution in delivering a high quality speaker for our event. Our overall event feedback has been that it was one of the best some of them have ever attended.

Peter Orszag Says 'Math Doesn't Work' on GOP Health Bill | Bloomberg [6:10] - Get Sharable Link
Talks & Conversations with Peter R. Orszag
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Reforming America’s Healthcare

Peter Orszag was a major strategist in developing and pushing the health reform act through Congress.There is no other speaker who was more intimately involved with the development and consequences of the healthcare reform bill on our nation’s economy, budget and legislative policy. As a membe ...

Peter Orszag was a major strategist in developing and pushing the health reform act through Congress. There is no other speaker who was more intimately involved with the development and consequences of the healthcare reform bill on our nation’s economy, budget and legislative policy. As a member of President Obama’s Cabinet and as Director of the OMB, Dr. Orszag highlighted the economic effect of our nation’s skyrocketing healthcare costs and played a crucial role in securing cost-cutting measures and limits in the new healthcare law. Breathing new life into the healthcare economics debate, Dr. Orszag identifies the critical fiscal points on the horizon and discusses the controversial decisions made on the road to reform – such as why he felt it necessary to create an independent advisory board to review Medicare spending, which some argue dangerously deflects power from the legislative branch in favor of the executive branch.

Navigating the Economic Horizon

As one of President Obama’s key aides on all economic issues, Peter Orszag directed the Office of Management and Budget. A member of the Cabinet, Dr. Orszag’s input was central to decisions on bolstering the economy, reforming healthcare, and all the various other economic issues that ha ...

As one of President Obama’s key aides on all economic issues, Peter Orszag directed the Office of Management and Budget. A member of the Cabinet, Dr. Orszag’s input was central to decisions on bolstering the economy, reforming healthcare, and all the various other economic issues that have faced the Obama Administration. From an insider’s point of view, he discusses the negotiations and players that have affected all recent world economic decisions and reviews the fiscal implications of legislative policies enacted. Dr. Orszag addresses the dynamics of the Administration’s, Congress’ and the world’s wrangling over economic issues and the very real challenges of job creation, economic growth, deficit reduction, and Washington and the world’s attitude toward business.

What's Happening in Washington and Its Effect on Business

During Peter Orszag's tenure, Congress debated and enacted the recovery act and the healthcare reform act, among numerous other pieces of legislation. Dr. Orszag opens the curtain on how these legislative policies were implemented and their fiscal implications with a masterful ability to recall, syn ...

During Peter Orszag's tenure, Congress debated and enacted the recovery act and the healthcare reform act, among numerous other pieces of legislation. Dr. Orszag opens the curtain on how these legislative policies were implemented and their fiscal implications with a masterful ability to recall, synthesize and humanize economic data. President Obama sought direction from Dr. Orszag on numerous issues involving our national economy, including debt, job creation, regulations, and healthcare spending. In his speeches and Q&A sessions, Dr. Orszag engages in informed conversation and debate with the audience – both those who support and those who criticize the reforms passed during his tenure. Beyond the white-hot timeliness of his content or his insider’s perspective, his engaging delivery brings to life the stories behind the data and within the White House.

The Most Debated Issues of the Country -- And How They Affect You

In these challenging times, Congress and the White House are engaging in debates that will shape our financial future for generations to come. How are those debates playing out in the halls of power? How will they affect my company’s bottom line? How will they affect my family’s financia ...

In these challenging times, Congress and the White House are engaging in debates that will shape our financial future for generations to come. How are those debates playing out in the halls of power? How will they affect my company’s bottom line? How will they affect my family’s financial security? As a leader who has been on the frontlines of many of our nation’s recent economic battles, Peter Orszag will help your audience boil down the complex worlds where economic and political policy collide. Dr. Orszag has been on both sides of these converging constituencies, and offers a unique perspective as an economist, and a political insider who had the ear of a President.

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Biography

Peter Richard Orszag is an American banker and economist, and Head of North American M&A and Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at Lazard. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Contributing Columnist at Bloomberg View. 

Orszag previously served as Vice Chairman of Corporate and Investment Banking and Chairman of the Financial Strategy and Solutions Group at Citigroup, Inc.

Prior to joining Citigroup in January 2011, Dr. Orszag served as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Contributing Columnist at the New York Times.   He previously served as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama Administration, a Cabinet-level position, from January 2009 until July 2010.  From January 2007 to December 2008, Dr. Orszag was the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).  Under his leadership, the agency significantly expanded its focus on areas such as health care and climate change.   

Prior to CBO, Dr. Orszag was the Joseph A. Pechman Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution.  While at Brookings, he also served as Director of The Hamilton Project, Director of the Retirement Security Project, and Co-Director of the Tax Policy Center.   During the Clinton Administration, he was a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and before that a staff economist and then Senior Advisor and Senior Economist at the President's Council of Economic Advisers.   Orszag has also founded and subsequently sold an economics consulting firm.

Dr. Orszag graduated summa cum laude in economics from Princeton University and obtained a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics, which he attended as a Marshall Scholar.  He has coauthored or coedited a number of books, including Protecting the Homeland (2006),Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America (2006), Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach (2004), and American Economic Policy in the 1990s (2002).  

Dr. Orszag serves on the Board of Directors of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, New Visions for Public Schools, and ideas42.  He is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Trilateral Commission, the Hamilton Project Advisory Council, and the Marshall Scholarship Alumni Advisory Board, and holds an honorary doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.   

Peter Orszag is married to Bianna Golodryga, who is the News and Finance anchor at Yahoo!, where she leads the media company’s coverage of all major financial and news stories along with global anchor Katie Couric.