Chief financial officer Michael Castellano will retire in a year, to be succeeded by Matthieu Bucaille, a Lazard executive in Paris.

The 63-year-old Castellano will step down from his post at the independent investment bank at the end of March 2011. Castellano has been chief financial officer at Lazard since August 2001 and was "instrumental" in taking the company public in May 2005, Lazard said. Before Lazard, he had held various positions with Merrill Lynch and Deloitte & Touche.