The Last Tycoons, won the Business Book of the Year by Goldman Sachs in 2007. It tells a story of Lazard, a financial advisory and asset management firm. It is especially the history of the incredible people who worked there, at an obscure French investment bank, once so mysterious and so poorly understood until 1995 when the three Lazard Freres partnerships have banded together in order to form a new partnership, Lazard Capital Markets, to improve their financing and trading activities in Europe and in emerging markets.

It is really an incredible story of ego, of aggression and ambition as people in charge of the company who, frankly speaking, were unelected to anything, put themselves at the centre of three very interesting worlds - the world of finance, the world of government and the world of the media. To reach the success they, basically speaking, had to master each of these worlds.

Lazard is a hundred and seventy-year-old company based in Paris, London and in New York. It is known as an aristocratic and secretive business that serves financial advice to corporations, governments and the ultra-wealthy.

The book is written by William Cohan a former a mergers and acquisitions banker who worked at the company for several years. He is also a former journalist and has skill and qualifications... (if you like to read my full review please visit my blog https://leadersarereaders.blog/2019/03/07/thelasttycoons) ( )

A rather boring book only made readable because of personal knowledge of the characters ( )

Felix Rohatyn
Michel David-Weil
André Meyer
Edouard Stern: Assassinated in his apartment by his lover ( )

Like the House of Lazard, this book is built around Great Men: the patrician Andre Meyer, the proud David David-Weill, the wily Bruce Wasserstein, but above all Felix Rohatyn, the pre-eminent financier of his era. The author adds three things which characterise the best reportage: access, insight, and an exemplary ability to transport us into their world. ( )

A fascinating history of Lazard, an American investment bank, full of huge egos, dodgy deals and billions of dollars. ( )