Jason Bernhard is a Managing Director at Lazard and Global Chief Operating Officer of Financial Advisory. Since joining Lazard in 1997, Jason has been involved in many of the firm’s most complex healthcare advisory assignments. He brings a unique perspective to Lazard’s advisory practice, having spent the majority of his career working with a broad range of healthcare clients. (more ...) He has held a wide range of senior management roles while at Lazard including Global Co-Head of Healthcare Investment Banking and Director of Lazard Canada, Ltd., and he co-founded Lazard’s biotechnology and later its healthcare services practices. Jason is CEO of Lazard Freres & Co. LLC, the firm's FINRA regulated broker-dealer, a member of the firm’s Financial Advisory Management Committee, and the Global Executive Committee, among others. Since joining Lazard in 1997, Jason has been involved in many of the firm’s most complex healthcare advisory assignments. He brings a unique perspective to Lazard’s advisory practice, having spent the majority of his career working with a broad range of healthcare clients. His transaction experience includes domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, restructurings, and capital raises, as well as contested situations. Selected transactions include the sale of Athenahealth to Veritas Capital, Aetna in its merger with CVS and Humana (terminated), Ariad in its sale to Takeda, Mylan’s Stichting during the hostile approach from Teva, Labcorp in its acquisition of Covance, Endo in its acquisition of Auxilium, Tenet Healthcare’s acquisition of Vanguard and USPI, Medco in its merger with Express Scripts, Omnicare in its hostile takeover of NeighborCare, Pfizer in its hostile takeover of Warner-Lambert and Pharmacia, and Hoechst in its merger with Rhône-Poulenc, among others. He has also served as a Trustee of one of New York-Presbyterian’s largest affiliates, The Brooklyn Hospital Center. Jason began his career in investment banking in 1988 in Merrill Lynch’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group working in New York, London and Hong Kong. He has a BA cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.