Marc Lasry
| Marc Lasry | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1959/1960 (age 52–53)[1] Morocco (raised in West Hartford, Connecticut) |
| Residence | New York, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | Moroccan Jewish |
| Education | Clark University New York Law School |
| Occupation | Private equity investor, Hedge fund manager |
| Known for | Co-founder of Avenue Capital Group |
| Net worth |  US $ 1.4 billion(March 2013)[2] |
| Spouse(s) | Cathy Lasry |
| Children | 5 |
Marc Lasry is an American billionaire hedge fund manager and co-founder and chief executive officer of hedge fund Avenue Capital Group.
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Early life and Education [edit]
Lasry was born in Marrakech[3], Morocco. He and his family immigrated to the U.S.[4] from Morocco when he was 7 and spoke no English. His father, Moise, was a computer programmer and his mother, Elise, was a schoolteacher.[5] At night, his parents worked a second job selling Moroccan clothing to boutique stores.[6] He grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut. He received a B.A. in history from Clark University in 1981 and a J.D. from New York Law School in 1984. His sister is Sonia Gardner together with whom was founded Amroc Investments and Avenue Capital Group in 1989 and 1995, respectively.[3]
Career [edit]
Mr. Lasry originally pursued a career in law, having clerked for the Honorable Edward Ryan, former Chief Bankruptcy Judge of the Southern District of New York and then having served as a specialist in bankruptcy law at Angel & Frankel.
Lasry began his career investing in distressed securities in the late 1980s. Lasry left Angel & Frankel for a job as the director of the private debt department at R.D. Smith (now Smith Vasillou Management). It was there he first got involved in trade claims. One year later, he went on to serve as Co-Director of the Bankruptcy and Corporate reorganization Department at Cowen & Company. At Cowen & Company, Mr. Lasry recruited his sister Sonia Gardner to join the firm to assist in the trade claims department. [7]
Lasry left Cowen & Company and joined the Robert M. Bass Group after he was approached by Robert Bass to manage a pool of capital focused on distressed investments.
In 1989, Lasry and Sonia Gardner decided to open their own boutique distressed brokerage firm. They founded distressed debt brokerage Amroc Investments in 1989 as a $100 million distressed debt investment partnership, which sourced trade claims and bank debt held by vendors and suppliers to bankrupt companies. In 1995, Lasry and Gardner struck out on their own with $7 million of capital to found Avenue Capital Group, which initially focused on distressed debt and special situations primarily in the United States. Lasry and Gardner successfully expanded the firm’s investment focus to Europe and Asia and the siblings went on to build the hedge fund to over $11 billion in assets. [5]
Media speculation says that Lasry will be the next ambassador to France with the announcement coming in the next few weeks, during April 2013. This is due largely to his fund raising for Democratic candidates including both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Personal life [edit]
Lasry is married to Cathy Lasry and has five children, one of whom now works in the White House.[5] Lasry is a competitive athlete, especially in basketball and tennis.[8] He also continues to have a deep interest in comics.[9] He lives at 4 East 74th Street, on Manhattan's Upper East Side.[10]
Other affiliations [edit]
In 2004, Lasry and his wife Cathy created a chair at the University of Pennsylvania to support a scholar and teacher in the School of Arts and Sciences. The couple also co-chairs the Penn Parent Leadership Committee, while Cathy sits on the School of Arts and Sciences Board of Overseers as well. [11] In 2005, Lasry and his wife donated $5 million to Clark University to build a new science center. University President John Bassett named the new science center the “Lasry Center for Bioscience”.[12]
Lasry has served as a director of the 92nd Street Y and the Big Apple Circus and as a trustee of the Mount Sinai Medical Center. Lasry is a prominent donor to Democratic Party causes.[13]
Notes [edit]
- ^ "The World's Billionaires: #960 Marc Lasry". Forbes. September 2012.
- ^ Forbes: the World's Billionaires: Mark Lasry March 2013
- ^ a b Wee, Gillian (Feb 15). "Lasry Sees Europe Bankruptcy Bonanza as Bad Debts Obscure Assets". Bloomberg. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
- ^ Tablet Magazine: "The Next Owner of ‘Newsweek’ Will Be Jewish – A plea against one of the candidates" By Marc Tracy July 30, 2010
- ^ a b c Bloomberg: "Lasry Sees Europe Bankruptcy Bonanza as Bad Debts Obscure Assets" February 14, 2012
- ^ Ahuja, Maneet. The alpha masters unlocking the genius of the world's top hedge funds. Hoboken, N.J.+: Wiley. p. 79. ISBN 1118167570.
- ^ Ahuja, Maneet. The alpha masters : unlocking the genius of the world's top hedge funds. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. pp. 79–81. ISBN 1118065522.
- ^ Schwartz, Nelson. "Hedge Fund Places Faith in Euro Zone". The New York Times.
- ^ Wachtel, Katya (15). "If fund manager Lasry gets ambassador nod, investors likely to stay". Reuters. Reuters. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
- ^ "Manhattan real estate news, data and statistics, home sales and real estate listings | Manhattan". Manhattan.blockshopper.com. Retrieved April 10, 2013.
- ^ Kazan, Dan. "The Lasry Family Professorship in Race Relations". Left Justified.
- ^ "Clark University names new biosciences center". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
- ^ Spector, Mike (March 27, 2010). "Avenue Capital's Investor in Chief". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
References [edit]
- A World Where Down Means Up. New York Times, August 19, 2005
- Bank Buys Into Fund. Reuters, October 31, 2006
- Avenue Capital’s Marc Lasry Is In Therapy Over Depressed Asset Prices. The Deal Sleuth
- Avenue Capital's Marc Lasry: Hedge Fund Shakeout Will Continue. Seeking Alpha, February 22, 2009
- Lasry Thinking Big For New Avenue Fund. HedgeFund.net, February 12, 2010
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