Gary Parr

Gary Parr
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	University of North Carolina Kellogg School of Management
Occupation	Investment banker
Employer	Lazard Ltd

Gary W. Parr is currently the Deputy Chairman of Lazard Frères and has been with the company since 2003. For over 25 years, he has focused on providing strategic advice to financial institutions and has brokered many of the largest transactions of the subprime mortgage crisis.[1] He began his career at the M&A Group at First Boston before forming Wasserstein Perella with Bruce Wasserstein and Joseph Perella. He held various leadership roles at Morgan Stanley when he joined in 1993, including the head of the M&A group and Vice Chairman of Originations.

While at Morgan Stanley, the M&A group was the number two M&A advisory firm of the world during the late 1990’s. He helped announce transactions of $918 billion in 1999 alone. [2]

During the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008, he became one of the most sought after advisors to financial services CEOs. [3]

Deal Experience

His deals include Lehman’s North American investment banking business to Barclay’s, the sale of Barclay's Global Investors to Blackrock, the sale of Madoff's trading platform, the sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan, the US-led restructuring of Fannie Mae, Mitsubishi UFJ’s investment in Morgan Stanley, Kuwait’s investment in Citigroup, China Investment Corp.’s investment in Morgan Stanley, the merger of Bank of New York and Mellon, JP Morgan’s acquisition of Bank One, New York Stock Exchange’s merger with Archipelago, Temasak’s purchase of the Khoo stake in Standard Chartered Bank, MBIA’s equity capital raising from Warburg Pincus, Mitsubishi Tokyo’s acquisition of UFJ Holdings, the merger of Lincoln Financial and Jefferson Pilot, ManuLife’s acquisition of John Hancock, AIG ’s acquisition of American General, the sale of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette to Credit Suisse First Boston, the merger of Allied Zurich PLC with Zurich Allied AG, the buy-in of Travelers Property Casualty by Citigroup, John Hancock’s Demutualization & IPO, AIG ’s purchase of SunAmerica, Dean Witter Discover’s merger with Morgan Stanley, and Berkshire Hathaway’s acquisition of GEICO. [4] .

Education

Mr. Parr attended North Carolina State University for his freshman and sophmore years [5]and then transferred to the University of North Carolina for his junior and senior campaigns, he graduated from UNC with honors --- Phi Beta Kappa and Beta Gamma Sigma. He also received an MBA from Northwestern University.

Personal

Gary is a Charlotte, NC native. He was an underachiever in his formative years and Gary was denied admission to his preferred college (UNC-Chapel Hill) because "his grades were 'awful' and he 'didn’t even try' in high school". He recognized certain deficiencies in character and/or effort, remedied them, and has clearly risen above them in his academic and professional pursuits. Gary was quoted saying “failure can many times be a driver, being rejected from Carolina was the best thing that ever happened to me. The day after I was rejected, I started focusing on how to succeed”[6]. Other than an idiot savant like fixation on UNC-Chapel Hill there is no apparent evidence that Gary retains any connection to Charlotte, or North Carolina broadly.

Mr. Parr is divorced with two grown children. He lives alone in a 24,000-square foot mansion located in Tuxedo Park, NY. The residence has 26 bedrooms and 11½ baths and is set amid 6.2 acres [7]. He leads an active social life and is a regular on the Sundance Film Festival party circuit, and is also known to accompany high profile television personalities such as Michelle Caruso-Cabrera to various social events, as well as traveling together internationally [8] [9]. During the Bear-Stearns meltdown Caruso-Cabrera was a CNBC lead reporter on the story and at the same time was dating Mr. Parr, who was the lead banker advising Bear-Stearns management. While no official improprieties were alleged, the relationship did create some controversy in the media given the sensitive nature of what was going on with Bear-Stearns[10].

Mr. Parr frequently appears in the New York Social Diary [[11]] [[12]]. The consensus amongst regulars is that Mr. Parr is sartorially challenged.

Affiliations

Chairman : New York Philharmonic 2009

Chairman : Parr Center for Ethics Univ. North Carolina

Chairman : Venetian Heritage

Former Board member : Berkeley Divinity School - Yale