Lazard Taps Ex-Treasury Official as CIO in Major Strategy Overhaul

NEW YORK, NY – January 06, 2026 – Lazard Asset Management (LAM) has announced a significant strategic shift in its leadership structure, appointing Eric Van Nostrand to the newly created position of Chief Investment Officer (CIO). The move is designed to centralize investment oversight and fortify the cohesion and discipline of the firm's global investment platform, which managed approximately $250 billion in client assets as of late 2025.

In this new capacity, Mr. Van Nostrand will be tasked with overseeing investment processes, driving economic debate across the firm, and enhancing the analytical frameworks that underpin Lazard's strategies. While individual portfolio managers will now report to the CIO, the firm emphasized that they will retain ultimate responsibility for the investment decisions within their respective portfolios. This appointment signals a deliberate evolution for the storied asset manager as it navigates an increasingly complex and competitive financial landscape.

A Strategic Response to a Shifting Landscape

The creation of a CIO role is more than a simple organizational tweak; it represents Lazard's calculated response to powerful headwinds and opportunities transforming the asset management industry. Faced with industry-wide fee compression, the rise of passive investing, and the relentless demand for technological innovation, firms are under immense pressure to deliver consistent, repeatable alpha. Lazard's move to unify its investment oversight under a single leader aims to address these challenges head-on.

“Establishing the CIO role marks an important evolution in how we support our investors and deliver for clients,” said Chris Hogbin, CEO of Lazard Asset Management, in a statement. “By unifying elements of our investment oversight, we can strengthen analytical rigor, build greater collaboration across teams, and enhance the consistency of our process—all with the goal of driving better and more repeatable outcomes for our clients.”

This initiative aligns directly with the firm's ambitious "Lazard 2030" strategy, which aims to double firm-wide revenue by the end of the decade. Recent performance indicates a solid foundation for this growth. After a dip in early 2025, LAM's assets under management (AUM) showed a steady recovery, ending the third quarter of 2025 at $265 billion, a 7% increase year-over-year. The firm also reported positive net flows for the year, demonstrating client confidence. The new CIO structure is expected to bolster this momentum by creating more scalable, research-driven processes, particularly as Lazard expands into new product areas like the actively managed ETFs it launched in April 2025.

From Public Policy to Portfolio Architect

The choice of Eric Van Nostrand for this pivotal role is particularly noteworthy. His career path is a unique blend of high-level public policy and sophisticated quantitative investment management. Before his appointment, Van Nostrand served as LAM's Global Head of Markets and Chief Economist, providing him with an intimate understanding of the firm's existing platform.

Prior to joining Lazard, he held the distinguished position of Acting Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy. In this role, he led the office responsible for analyzing critical U.S. economic policies and was honored with the Alexander Hamilton Award, the U.S. Treasury's highest commendation. This experience provides him with a deep macroeconomic perspective that is invaluable in today's globally interconnected markets.

His background also includes significant private sector experience as a portfolio manager and Managing Director at BlackRock, one of the world's largest asset managers. There, he managed systematic equity funds and was Head of Research for Multi-Asset Strategies, giving him hands-on expertise in data-driven, process-oriented investing. This combination of top-down economic insight and bottom-up quantitative rigor positions him to effectively bridge the gap between discretionary and systematic investment styles at Lazard.

“Our opportunity now is to harness that expertise even more effectively across our platform to deliver alpha for our clients—elevating our best ideas and sharpening our processes across discretionary and systematic portfolios,” Mr. Van Nostrand stated. His focus on reinforcing a "culture of curiosity and innovation" points to a mandate that extends beyond mere oversight to active enhancement of the firm's intellectual capital.

The Industry Trend Toward Centralized Command

Lazard's decision is reflective of a broader industry trend toward centralizing investment leadership. As asset managers grow in scale and complexity, many are creating or empowering CIO roles to ensure consistency, manage enterprise-level risk, and drive the strategic integration of technology. In an era where AI and big data are becoming central to generating returns, a unified vision for their deployment across a firm is a competitive necessity.

The new structure aims to strike a delicate balance: fostering collaboration and enforcing rigorous standards without stifling the specialized expertise and autonomy of individual portfolio managers. The success of this model will depend on the CIO's ability to act as a partner and resource rather than a bureaucratic gatekeeper. By promoting a more cohesive investment culture, Lazard hopes to break down internal silos and ensure its best ideas are leveraged across the entire platform.

This structural enhancement is a clear signal of Lazard's commitment to adapting and evolving. By creating a role to strengthen connectivity between its teams, deepen the integration of risk analytics, and ensure a consistent application of its investment discipline, the firm is positioning itself to not only compete but to lead in the next chapter of asset management.