Gary Parr
Encyclopedia
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.http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2008/01/22/Gary-Parr-Profile He began his career at the M&A Group at First Boston
First Boston
First Boston Corporation was a New York-based, bulge bracket, investment bank, founded in 1932 and acquired by Credit Suisse in 1990. Together with its sister investment banks, it was referred to as CS First Boston after 1993 and part of Credit Suisse First Boston after 1996, the First Boston part...

 before forming Wasserstein Perella with Bruce Wasserstein
Bruce Wasserstein
Bruce Jay Wasserstein was an American investment banker and businessman. He was a graduate of the McBurney School, University of Michigan, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School, and spent a year at Cambridge University...

 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 1990s. He helped announce transactions of $918 billion in 1999 alone. http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/kwo/win07/features/parr.htm

During the subprime mortgage crisis
Subprime mortgage crisis
The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was one of the first indicators of the late-2000s financial crisis, characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, and the resulting decline of securities backed by said mortgages....

 of 2008, he became one of the most sought after advisors to financial services CEOs. http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2008/01/22/Gary-Parr-Profile

Deal experience

His deals include Lehman
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA , doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker...

’s North American investment banking business to Barclay's, the sale of Barclay's Global Investors to BlackRock
BlackRock
BlackRock, Inc. is an American multinational investment management corporation and the world's largest asset manager. BlackRock is headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States and is the leading provider of investment, advisory, and risk management solutions...

, the sale of Madoff's trading platform, the sale of Bear Stearns
Bear Stearns
The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. based in New York City, was a global investment bank and securities trading and brokerage, until its sale to JPMorgan Chase in 2008 during the global financial crisis and recession...

 to JPMorgan, the US-led restructuring of Fannie Mae, Mitsubishi UFJ’s investment in Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City serving a diversified group of corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley also operates in 36 countries around the world, with over 600 offices and a workforce of over 60,000....

, Kuwait’s investment in Citigroup
Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...

, China Investment Corp.’s investment in Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City serving a diversified group of corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley also operates in 36 countries around the world, with over 600 offices and a workforce of over 60,000....

, the merger of Bank of New York
Bank of New York
The Bank of New York was a global financial services company established in 1784 by the American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. It existed until its merger with the Mellon Financial Corporation on July 2, 2007...

 and Mellon
Mellon Financial
Mellon Financial Corporation, was one of the world's largest money management firms. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was in the business of institutional and high-net-worth-individual asset management, including the Dreyfus family of mutual funds; business banking; and shareholder and...

, JP Morgan’s acquisition of Bank One, New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...

’s merger with Archipelago
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

, Temasak’s purchase of the Khoo stake in Standard Chartered Bank
Standard Chartered Bank
Standard Chartered PLC is a multinational financial services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom with operations in more than seventy countries...

, MBIA’s equity capital raising from Warburg Pincus
Warburg Pincus
Warburg Pincus, LLC is an American private equity firm with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil and Asia. It has been a private equity investor since 1966...

, Mitsubishi Tokyo’s acquisition of UFJ Holdings, the merger of Lincoln Financial and Jefferson Pilot, ManuLife’s acquisition of John Hancock
John Hancock
John Hancock was a merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts...

, AIG
AIG
AIG is American International Group, a major American insurance corporation.AIG may also refer to:* And-inverter graph, a concept in computer theory* Answers in Genesis, a creationist organization in the U.S.* Arta Industrial Group in Iran...

 ’s acquisition of American General, the sale of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette to Credit Suisse First Boston
Credit Suisse First Boston
Credit Suisse First Boston was the former name of the banking firm Credit Suisse.-History:In 1978, Credit Suisse and First Boston Corporation formed a London-based 50-50 investment banking joint venture called the Financière Crédit Suisse-First Boston...

, the merger of Allied Zurich PLC with Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

 Allied AG, the buy-in of Travelers Property Casualty by Citigroup
Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...

, John Hancock
John Hancock
John Hancock was a merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts...

’s Demutualization & IPO, AIG
AIG
AIG is American International Group, a major American insurance corporation.AIG may also refer to:* And-inverter graph, a concept in computer theory* Answers in Genesis, a creationist organization in the U.S.* Arta Industrial Group in Iran...

 ’s purchase of SunAmerica, Dean Witter Discover’s merger with Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City serving a diversified group of corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley also operates in 36 countries around the world, with over 600 offices and a workforce of over 60,000....

, and Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, that oversees and manages a number of subsidiary companies. The company averaged an annual growth in book value of 20.3% to its shareholders for the last 44 years,...

’s acquisition of GEICO
GEICO
The Government Employees Insurance Company is an auto insurance company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway that as of 2007 provided coverage for more than 10 million motor vehicles owned by more than 9 million policy holders. GEICO writes private passenger automobile insurance...

. http://www.maoutlook2009.com/speakers.html
.

Education

Parr attended North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...

 for his freshman and sophomore years http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/news/alumniMag/2005Fall/DefineL.html and then transferred to the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...

 for his junior and senior campaigns, he graduated from UNC with honors: Phi Beta Kappa and Beta Gamma Sigma
Beta Gamma Sigma
Beta Gamma Sigma or ΒΓΣ is an honor society for business students and scholars. Founded in 1913 at the University of Wisconsin, it has over 650,000 members, selected from over 500 chapters in AACSB-accredited business schools...

. He also received an MBA from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

.

Personal

Parr is a Charlotte, NC native. He was an underachiever in his formative years and 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. Parr 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”http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/news/alumniMag/2005Fall/DefineL.html.

Parr is divorced with two grown children. He lives alone in a 24000 square feet (2,229.7 m²) mansion located in Tuxedo Park, NY. The residence has 26 bedrooms and 11½ baths and is set amid 6.2 acres (25,090.5 m²) http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/none_over_parr_y60EnwD1MoTNf57PpsN0MO. 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
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera is an American business news General Assignment Reporter for CNBC television. She formerly co-hosted the Worldwide Exchange program airing from 4-6am ET . Caruso-Cabrera announced her departure from the show on 2007-10-19...

to various social events, as well as traveling together internationally http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/none_over_parr_y60EnwD1MoTNf57PpsN0MO http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2008/04/michelle-caruso-cabrera-cnbc-maria-bartiromo-gary-parr-china-pictures-maria-bartiromo.php.

Parr frequently appears in the New York Social Diary http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/1898 http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/483442.

Affiliations

  • Chairman : New York Philharmonic 2009
  • Chairman : Parr Center for Ethics Univ. North Carolina
  • Chairman : Venetian Heritage
  • Former Board member : Berkeley Divinity School - Yale
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK