Lazard has appointed Lawrence Ricciardi, a former adviser to the chairman of IBM, as a senior adviser to provide strategic guidance and boost the firm's profile.

Ricciardi recently retired as senior vice-president and adviser to Louis Gerstner, former chairman of IBM. Prior to that he was general counsel of IBM, responsible for all of its legal affairs, and he also oversaw the government programmes, intellectual property, licencing and security operations. Between June 1997 and May 1998 he was chief financial officer of IBM.