First living in Orléans, where his father was a brewery manager, and then in Paris in 1937 following his parents' divorce, he attended the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly,[13] where he was awarded a prize for excellence in 1938.

[14] After the German invasion of France in 1940, they fled to Casablanca, Lisbon, and in 1941, Rio de Janeiro, before arriving in the United States in 1942.

While at Lazard he brokered numerous major mergers and acquisitions, notably on behalf of International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), where he became a director in 1966.

Carey appointed Rohatyn to head a blue-ribbon advisory committee to look for a long-term solution to the city's fiscal problems.

But even with all of these measures, the value of the MAC bonds dropped in price, and the city struggled to find the money to pay its employees and stay in operation.

In November 1975 the federal government stepped in, with Congress extending $2.3 billion in short-term loans in return for more stringent measures.

He also drew the fire of some critics, who accused him of bailing out the banks, while slashing workers' wages and benefits and reducing the power of municipal unions.

As Rohatyn wrote in the MAC annual report, however, "The alternative to such cutbacks would have been bankruptcy for the city, which would have generated infinitely greater social costs".

[21] In 1996, the Clinton administration put forward his candidacy for the post of Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve, but a formal nomination was not made because of ideological opposition from Republicans.

[24] On January 27, 2010, Rohatyn announced his return to Lazard as special advisor to the chairman and chief executive officer,[7] after a short role at Rothschild.

Rohatyn was United States Ambassador to France from 1997 to 2000, during the second term of the Clinton Administration and was a Commander in the French Legion of Honour.

He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a trustee for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In 2007, Rohatyn and the late Senator Warren Rudman co-chaired the Commission on Public Infrastructure, a bipartisan council of governors, members of the United States Congress and U.S. business leaders sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

[35] Rohatyn also worked with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, who has authored a House bill to create an infrastructure bank.

[35] His book, Bold Endeavors: How our Government Built America, and Why It Must Rebuild Now, argues that a national infrastructure investment program would have a transformational effect and lift the U.S. economy, as did historic federal projects such as the First transcontinental railroad, the G.I.