Bruce Jay Wasserstein (December 25, 1947 – October 14, 2009)[2] was an American investment banker, businessman, and writer.

He was prominent in the mergers and acquisitions industry, credited with working on 1,000 transactions with a total value of approximately $250 billion.

[4] His father, a Jewish immigrant from pre-World War II Poland, settled in New York City and started a ribbon company.

[5] His maternal grandfather was Simon Schleifer, a Jewish teacher in the yeshiva in Wloclawek, Poland who later immigrated to Paterson, New Jersey and became a Hebrew school principal.

Starting his career as an attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Wasserstein then moved to First Boston Corp. in 1977 and eventually rose to co-head of that company's then-dominant merger and acquisition practice.