Lazard has recruited a former chief of staff to the Belgian prime minister as a managing director, in the latest of a string of hires to its European investment banking business over the past six months.

Wouter Gabriels, who was most recently president of the chancery and chief of staff in the office of former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, will join Lazard at the start of September and will focus on European and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. He will work primarily from France and Belgium, Lazard said in a statement today.