In 1940, Mr. Meyer and his family fled Paris ahead of the invading German Army. It was also due to his ferociously hard work, his network of friendships with other influential people and his ability to attract and command able associates. In 1926, Mr. Meyer was taken on as a partner, and he soon be‐ came highly influential. Mr. Meyer also supported Vice President Humphrey for the Presidency, and his ties to the Kennedys included supervising the portfolio of investments that President Kennedy bequeathed to his widow, Jacqueline. His philanthropies amounted to more than $5 million, including putting up nearly $3 million for the construction of a series of new galleries for European paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art — a piece of philanthropy that has not been disclosed until now. At Lazard, André Meyer organized SOVAC (Societé pour la Vente à Crédit d'Automobiles), a finance company that in the late twenties introduced the concept of automobile financing for consumers. But as one of Mr. Meyer's associates put it later, “His voice continued to be heard.”. Mr. David‐Weill is a grandson of David David‐Weill and a member of the wealthy clan, descended from the original Lazard family, that has long played a powerful role in the three Lazard houses. In the hushed Rockefeller Plaza headquarters of Lazard Frères, one of the nation's foremost investment banking houses, Mr. Meyer's associates sometimes used to refer to him as “Zeus” —the most powerful of the gods. That mixture of elegance, hauteur and understatement ran through Mr. Meyer's private life. He also aided New York University, Mount Sinai Hospital and other medical institutions. And once, over a glass of sweet sherry, he told a visitor to the firm that “improvisation” was at the heart of his business, because he and his partners were in a hotly competitive field. [1] As a boy, he began following the workings of the stock market and out of necessity left school at age sixteen to work as a messenger at the Paris Bourse. Mr. Meyer is survived by his wife; a son, Philippe Meyer — a physicist — and a daughter, Francine Meyer, both of Paris; and by four grandchildren, of whom three are limited partners in Lazard Frères & Company who live in New York. His wife of half a century, the former Bella Lehman, was noted for her enduring good looks. Known as "The Picasso of Banking," he introduced innovative financing techniques to post-War American business. Felix Rohatyn credits Meyer as his mentor. Although rumors persisted that Mr. Meyer had helped draft a marriage contract between her and her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, Mr. Meyer, in private conversation, denied having played any such role. This content is currently not available in your region. He died in a hospital in Lausanne. 2 people found this helpful. Meyer and Lazard partner Felix Rohatyn have been credited with virtually inventing the modern mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market. in 1965 and donations of paintings to the Louvre and the Museum of Modern Art. [4], International Telephone & Telegraph Company, Jewish Telegraph Agency: "Andre Meyer, Jewish Banker, Gives $2,500,000 to New York University", "Andre Meyer, N.Y. Investment Banker, Philanthropist, Dies", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=André_Meyer&oldid=979909427, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 23 September 2020, at 13:26. They took charge of company expenditures and substantially reduced operating costs while putting together a financial restructuring plan that saved the company from liquidation. He was a friend and advisor to other high-profile public figures such as William S. Paley at CBS and Katharine Graham at The Washington Post''. André Meyer, called "the most creative financial genius of our time in the investment banking world" by David Rockefeller, became one of the most important people in American business with an influence that extended around the globe. Ambitious, he used his time to study the intricacies of stock trading and because of personnel shortages created by so many young French men serving in the military in World War I, he was able to get a job with Baur & Fils, a small Paris bank. Though Mr. Meyer deliberately kept the New York firm small, he made sure it was extremely profitable, Wall Street insiders reported a few years ago. Although he personally was publicity-shy, André Meyer was an advisor to the Kennedy family and a lifelong friend and advisor to Jackie Onassis. By 1925, his performance with the bank made him noticed by Raymond Philippe who arranged for him to get an offer from the prestigious investment bankers Lazard Frères and within a few years Meyer was made a partner, succeeding to Raymond Philippe. In a rare discussion of Lazard's internal workings at that time, former Lazard associates reported that Mr. Meyer, as senior partner, received roughly 20 to 25 percent of the firm's profits, or at least $2 million a year, in addition to very substantial income from investments outside the firm. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. As well, from 1927, representing Lazard along with Paul Frantzen and Raymond Philippe, André Meyer was elected to Board of Directors of the failing automobile giant Citroën. Meyer was born to a low-income Jewish family in Paris. He began his financial career as a messenger in Paris's financial district and soon became a stockbroker on the floor of the Paris Bourse. He put together prodigious deals through leveraged buyouts for companies such as International Telephone & Telegraph Company (ITT) who grew to become the ninth largest industrial corporation in the United States. He sometimes talked business, even with his New York partners, in his native, somewhat formal French. Mr. Meyer made his way to New York, where he began working with the United States Lazard firm. In 1961, he gave artwork to Museum of Modern Art in New York, including a major work by Paul Cézanne. On the Democratic side, Mr. Meyer was on advisory committees that served the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, and he was a good friend of President Johnson — although he said in private conversation that he did not like the Johnson Vietnam policy and could not understand why his friend clung to it so long. In his spare time, Mr. Meyer assembled a costly art collection that included a landscape by the 19th‐century French painter Camille Pissarro, which he bought for $62,000, then a world record price for a Pissarro, at an auction here in 1958. Mr. Meyer is also survived by five greatgrandchildren. Reviewed in India on November 29, 2019 . He helped organize Sovac, the first French consumer‐finance company, which later became known as Crédit Mobilier Industriel. But David Sarnoff, the longtime chairman of the RCA Corporation and an old friend, used to say that what lay at the heart of Mr. Meyer's success was his lightning‐quick, almost intuitive analytical powers, which enabled him to grasp the subtleties and implications of even the most complicated transactions while others were still thinking things over. He wore dark suits, heavy silk ties and luxurious shirts with the French cuffs always in evidence. Ambitious, he used his time to study the intricacies of stock trading and because of personnel shortages created by so many young French men serving in the military in World War I, he was able to get a job with Baur & Fils, a small Paris bank. Rohatyn asserts that Meyer's guidance and advice made success at Lazard possible. He could lose his temper in an instant, might then turn a withering stare on, say, a distinguished financier who had dared to question his logic, snapping: “I will not have this; you will become a baker in the morning.”, Thgoughout his later life, Mr. Meyer maintained many ties to Europe, including a vacation chalet in Crans, a high-altitude (4,950 feet) health resort in southern Switzerland. Meyer was born in Paris to a low-income family. He was also a close confidant of U.S, President Lyndon Johnson, consulting at the Oval Office several times a year during Johnson's tenure. Top reviews from other countries C RAMAMOHAN. You also agree to our Terms of Service. His collection of music scores began with works by Georg Muffat and Jean-Philippe Rameau, and expanded to include scores by Georg Frideric Handel, François Couperin, Antonio Vivaldi, Vincent Lübeck, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Christoph Willibald Gluck, a sketchleaf of Ludwig van Beethoven once owned by Frédéric Chopin, Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Johann Kuhnau, Domenico Scarlatti, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Christian Bach, and Carl Friedrich Abel. Some critics accused him of ruthlessness and of helping to foster the conglomerate movement in the United States as a method of generating fees for his company. André Benoit Mathieu Meyer was born on Sept. 3, 1898, in Paris, according to the Lazard spokesman, although it was rumored that Mr. Meyer was actually born a year or two earlier. As a boy, he began following the workings of the stock market and out of necessity left school at age sixteen to work as a messenger at the Paris Bourse. It made Lazard Frères a significant force in consumer credit as well as in product leasing. Mr. Meyer became a United States citizen in 1948, the Lazard spokesman said. A private burial ceremony is to be held tomorrow in a Paris cemetery. The book is well written, and full of interesting trivia about Lazard and Andre Meyer. André Benoit Mathieu Meyer was born on Sept. 3, 1898, in Paris, according to the Lazard spokesman, although it was rumored that Mr. Meyer was actually born … Years later, in private conversation, he said he had earlier contributed money to a plot to assassinate Hitler and therefore had special cause to fear the advancing Nazis. In the economic boom following World War II, the American operations of Lazard expanded significantly under the leadership of the financier André Meyer. The galleries, to be completed by February 1980, are to be named for him. Asked about that once, Mr. Meyer shrugged his expensively tailored shoulders and answered, “The first two are really one, and the third is not always the case.”. When his collection was sold by Sotheby's on 16 and 17 October 2012, they noted that the collection contained beautifully bound 16th and 17th century scores by composers whose manuscripts rarely come up at auction anymore including Orlande de Lassus, Claudio Monteverdi, Jacques Arcadelt, Cristóbal de Morales, Luca Marenzio, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Marco da Gagliano, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Jacopo Peri & Ottavio Rinuccini, and Antonio Cesti, among others.[2]. By 1925, his performance with the bank made him noticed by Raymond … His best‐known protégé at Lazard Frères was Felix G. Rohatyn, a partner who played a major role in the financial resuscitation of New York City as head of the Municipal Assistance Corporation. By clicking “I agree” below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. Andre Meyer, 81, a former senior partner of Lazard Freres & Co., a respected New York investment banking house, died Sunday at the Nestle Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland. He died of circulatory problems in the Nestlé Hospital in Lausanne,[3] and was interred near his closest friend and business partner Pierre David-Weill in the Jewish section of the Cemetery of Montparnasse in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris, France. An avid collector of art objects, Meyer's eclectic assemblages included paintings by Claude Monet, Marc Chagall, and Pablo Picasso, sculptures, Louis XIV furniture, and original music scores. During the 1960s, Meyer was responsible for making Lazard Frères the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) firm in the U.S. Mr. Meyer's owlish face and mobile eyes sometimes had a mischievous air —and sometimes radiated lordly, if temporary, wrath. Before long, the young Mr. Meyer's enterprise, speed and skill were noticed by David David‐Weill, then the head of the Paris Lazard firm. André Meyer maintained a vacation home in Crans-sur-Sierre, Valais, Switzerland and while there in the summer of 1979, he fell ill. His fortune included a wide range of other investments, notably in real estate in New York and Washington. Lazard Logo () André Benoit Mathieu Meyer (September 3, 1898 – September 9, 1979) was a French-born American Wall Street investment banker. See our, Read a limited number of articles each month, You consent to the use of cookies and tracking by us and third parties to provide you with personalized ads, Unlimited access to washingtonpost.com on any device, Unlimited access to all Washington Post apps, No on-site advertising or third-party ad tracking. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. Following his death, the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired his collection of 19th century European art. He came to Lazard Frères' New York City office with Chairman Pierre David-Weill (1900–1975) and following the Allied Forces liberation in 1944 David-Weill returned to France and Meyer was appointed head of the American operations, a position he would occupy for the rest of his life. At one time, he was believed to hold about $2 million in RCA stock and $4 million in Newmont stock personally. Though Mr. Meyer never held a fulltime government post, many notables in the world of politics were the beneficiaries of his advice, charm or support. They are Patrick A. Gerschel, Laurent Gerschel and Marianne Gerschel Merrick, all children of Francine Meyer's by a marriage that ended in divorce. Mr. Meyer's philanthropic activity included a $2.5 million gift to N.Y.U. Married with two children, Meyer, who was Jewish, and his family were forced to flee France following the Nazi occupation during World War II. This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Mr. Meyer was also a partner in an affiliated Paris firm, called Lazard Frères et Cie., and had approximately a 10 percent interest in another affiliated firm, Lazard Brothers of London, according to associates. André Meyer, the New York‐based investment banker whose virtuoso skill at deal‐making brought him vast wealth and power, died Sunday, a spokesman for Lazard Frères & Company, the firm Mr. Meyer dominated for decades, said yesterday. See the article in its original context from. Meyer was born to a low-income Jewish family in Paris. stock, thereby realizing a huge capital gain for Lazard's partners. “Financial engineering” is what the Paris‐born Mr. Meyer, a naturalized American citizen, liked to call his work. In 1922 he married Bella Lehman, no relation to the Lehmans of Lehman Brothers in New York. André Meyer Is Dead; Financier Led Lazard. Mr. Meyer also used his energies and wealth in a variety of fields outside the business world, serving as a trustee of New York University, the Sloan‐Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, Mount Sinai Medical Center and the Metropolitan Museum. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. Mr. Meyer's success stemmed largely from his great talent at devising and orchestrating mergers and other complex corporate deals. André Benoît Mathieu Meyer (September 3, 1898 – September 9, 1979) was a French-American investment banker. Helpful. During his 33 years as the head of the firm, a partnership, Mr. Meyer amassed enormous Influence in the world of finance and built a personal fortune that was widely estimated at $250 million or more; by some accounts, it may have reached $500 million. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Some of these far‐flung, hard‐driving business activities brought Mr. Meyer his share of criticism on various grounds. Verified Purchase. When Mr. Meyer slowed down his business activities in the 70's, Michel DavidWeill became the senior partner of Lazard in New York, and Mr. Meyer became a limited partner. Mr. Meyer was 81 years old, had been in poor health, and recently caught pneumonia in Switzerland, where he had often vacationed over the years. We rely on readers like you to uphold a free press. For his service to the economy of France, the government awarded him with the Legion of Honor. Read more. See all reviews. He soon made a reputation for aggressive deal‐seeking, and he took charge of the New York house after its former head, Frank Altschul, retired from the firm in 1943. Data released in 1973 by the Committee to Re‐elect the President indicated that Mr. Meyer had contributed $90,000 to President Nixon's re‐election campaign in 1972, which made him one of the 95 largest contributors. By clicking “I agree” below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. He did not mind when Americans pronounced his name in the American way, “MY‐er,” but he himself pronounced it “My‐AIR.”. He was the son of Jules Meyer, a small‐business man, and Lucie Cerf Meyer. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. But he was occasionally seen escorting the President's widow in the years before her remarriage — thereby giving cre‐ dence to the Wall Street saying that Mr. Meyer loved three things in life: beautiful women, great art and complex deals. 4.0 out of 5 stars Great biography of genius in world of finance. Comment Report abuse. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. As Lazard's active senior partner from 1944 to 1977, Mr. Meyer engineered such lucrative deals as Lazard's purchase of the Avis Rent A Car System for roughly $7 million and its resale to the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation a few years later for $52 million in I.T.T.