Mr. Istel is a member of the Firm’s Strategic Advisory Board, Investment Committee and Board of Managers.

Mr. Istel has more than 30 years of investment banking experience. From 1993 to 2002, he was Vice Chairman of Rothschild Inc. and currently serves as a Senior Advisor to the firm and as a member of its Investment Banking Committee. Mr. Istel began his career in 1977 at Lehman Brothers where he was a Managing Director and a member of the Board. In 1984, he became Co-Chairman of First Boston International, and in 1988, became Chairman of Wasserstein Perella & Co. International.

Mr. Istel is a Director of Compagnie Financière Richemont SA and a member of its Audit Committee, its Nominations Committee and its Compensation Committee. He is also a Director of Imperial Sugar Company and a member of its Audit Committee and Chairman of its Nominating & Governance Committee. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Healthpoint Partners LLC.

Mr. Istel is the Chairman of four organizations: the Advisory Board of the Remarque Institute at New York University; the Center for French Civilization and Culture at New York University; The European Institute, and Fondation Saint-John Perse. He is also a Member of the Board of four organizations: the French-American Foundation; the Board of Overseers at New York University; Action Against Hunger, USA, and the Advisory Council in the Department of French and Italian at Princeton University. He is a member of three organizations: the Council on Foreign Relations; The Economic Club of New York, and The Bretton Woods Committee. He is a Trustee of the French American Cultural Exchange.

Mr. Istel earned a degree in Economics from Princeton University. He was awarded the Officier des Arts et de Lettres and Officier de la Légion d’Honneur.