Delivering Alpha

Marc Lasry

Marc Lasry, Avenue Capital Group
Source: Avenue Capital Group

Marc Lasry is the chairman, chief executive officer and co-founder of Avenue Capital Group, a global alternative investment manager focused on distressed and undervalued debt and equity opportunities in the United States, Europe and Asia. In 1995, Lasry formed Avenue with his sister Sonia Gardner with less than $10 million in capital from friends and family. Today, Avenue is one of the largest distressed debt investors globally, managing assets of approximately $10.9 billion, with headquarters in New York City and offices in London, Luxembourg, Munich, Madrid, Milan and four offices throughout Asia.

Lasry is known as a pioneer in distressed investing, which has been the focus of his professional career for more than 30 years.

After law school, Lasry clerked for Edward Ryan, chief bankruptcy judge for the Southern District of New York. He spent the following year practicing law at Angel & Frankel, which focused on bankruptcies.

Lasry subsequently became the director of the private debt department at R.D. Smith, the firm where he first became involved in "trade claims," the market in purchasing and selling to investors the unsecured claims of vendors and other creditors against a debtor. In 1987 he moved to Cowen & Co., where he was co-director of the bankruptcy and corporate reorganization department. It was at Cowen that he caught the attention of the Texas investor Robert Bass, who was a client of the firm. When he left Cowen, Lasry went to manage more than $100 million for the Robert Bass Group. There, he invested in bank debt, senior bonds and trade claims. The Bass fund Lasry oversaw was called Amroc Investments LP, and at the time, it stood as one of the largest distressed funds in the United States. In 1990 he co-founded a boutique distressed brokerage firm, keeping the Amroc name and maintaining the affiliation with the Robert Bass Group.

Lasry is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and he also serves on the board of directors of The Clinton Global Initiative and the Board of the 92nd Street Y. He previously served as a member of the board of trustees of The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Lasry received a BA in history from Clark University and a JD from New York Law School.