Michel David-Weill, Influential Lazard Banker, Dies at 89

Mr. David-Weill was generally known as the “Solar King.” “Every little thing revolved round Michel at Lazard,” William D. Cohan, the creator of “The Final Tycoons: The Secret Historical past of Lazard Frères & Co.” (2007), mentioned in an interview.

Mr. Cohan labored at Lazard for six years. “To me it appeared like probably the most fascinating and mysterious place on Wall Road. Non-public partnership, punching above its weight, small, elite, prestigious,” he mentioned. “It was like a Florentine guild.”

Ali Wambold, who joined Lazard as a vp in 1985 and have become a basic accomplice in 1987, mentioned that Mr. David-Weill “noticed himself as a gardener” and “was not particularly ruthless or sharp-elbowed.” And Mr. Jacobs mentioned, “I can’t ever bear in mind him being imperious.” Relatively, he mentioned, he remembered a peaceful, well mannered man who thrived in one-on-one settings.

After Lazard, Mr. David-Weill devoted himself to Eurazeo, the worldwide funding firm he fashioned in Paris in 2001.

“He fought numerous battles,” mentioned Virginie Morgon, the chief government of Eurazeo, including: “The battle that he fought in opposition to Bruce Wasserstein was in all probability the hardest one, as a result of that was his legacy, and he needed to go away the financial institution. However that is somebody who by no means regarded again.”

Past the workplace, Mr. David-Weill was a philanthropist and a passionate artwork patron with a celebrated assortment. He was concerned with quite a few cultural establishments, together with as a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork.

Along with his spouse, Mr. David-Weill is survived by 4 daughters, Béatrice, Natalie, Cécile and Agathe, and 11 grandchildren.