Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Steven Golub, vice chairman of Lazard Ltd., was named interim chief executive officer of the firm following the death of Bruce Wasserstein, the preeminent Wall Street dealmaker who took the bank public in 2005.

Lazard announced Wasserstein’s death at the age of 61 yesterday in a statement, without giving a cause of death or saying when or where he died. Wasserstein had been hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat, Lazard said on Oct. 11.

Golub, 63, joined Hamilton, Bermuda-based Lazard in 1984 and has been chairman of the financial-advisory group since May 2005. He takes charge of Lazard as it emerges from a slowdown in mergers and acquisitions. In July, Lazard reported profit that beat analysts’ estimates as revenue from advising on corporate restructurings almost tripled. Second-quarter earnings dropped 33 percent to $43.1 million from the same period a year earlier.

Golub “is the gel between the old Lazard and the new Lazard,” said William Tanona, an analyst at Collins Stewart Inc. in New York. “He’s always been Bruce’s No. 2. He’s qualified, he understands the business extremely well, and he has the respect of his peers. I think it will be a seamless transition.”

He previously was a partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells from 1980 to 1984. Prior to that, he served as deputy chief accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1979 to 1980.

A onetime corporate lawyer, Wasserstein rose to the top of the ranks of merger advisers during the 1980s and won a well- publicized battle with Michel David-Weill to take Lazard Freres & Co. public. He became chairman and CEO in May 2005.

The Deals

“He made more from investment banking than any man on the planet,” said William Cohan, author of the 2007 book “The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co.”

Wasserstein worked on some of the biggest deals in the last 30 years. Most recently, he was personally leading the team advising Kraft Foods Inc. CEO Irene Rosenfeld on her $16 billion takeover of British chocolate maker Cadbury PLC.

“Our deepest sympathies go out to the family of Bruce Wasserstein as well as his many friends and colleagues,” Kraft said in an e-mailed statement. “He was a trusted adviser and will be missed dearly.”

Wasserstein helped guide transactions including Philip Morris Cos.’ $13 billion purchase of Kraft Inc. in 1988, KKR& Co.’s $31.4 billion offer for RJR Nabisco Inc. in 1989 and the $15.7 billion merger of Time Inc. and Warner Bros. in 1990.

“I am deeply saddened by the news of Bruce’s passing,” Joseph Perella, chairman of Perella Weinberg Partners, said in a statement. “We knew each other for 33 years and were partners together for 16 years. We accomplished a lot together. Bruce was a rare talent.”

Partners With Perella

Wasserstein learned mergers and acquisitions at First Boston Corp., now part of Credit Suisse AG, and left with Perella in 1988 to found Wasserstein, Perella & Co.

Germany’s Dresdner Bank AG bought Wasserstein, Perella for $1.56 billion in 2001, moving Wasserstein into the ranks of the wealthiest people in the U.S. Forbes magazine estimated his net worth to be $2.3 billion in September 2009, tied for 190th on its annual list of 400 richest Americans.

Under the terms of Wasserstein’s 2008 employment contract, all of the restricted stock units that he was awarded will vest. Wasserstein had 4.36 million unvested units as of Dec. 31, which would be worth $189 million based on yesterday’s closing price of $43.27.

Wasserstein used his wealth to become a media owner, buying New York magazine for $55 million in 2003. He paid $63 million for American Lawyer and $200 million for National Law Publishing Co. in 1997 and sold those publications to Incisive Media of the U.K. for $630 million.

‘Psychological Bullying’

“We’re shocked and saddened by the loss of Bruce Wasserstein,” said Adam Moss, editor-in-chief, and Larry Burstein, publisher, of New York Media, the parent company of New York magazine. Spokeswoman Lauren Starke declined to comment on what Wasserstein’s death might mean for the publication.

Wasserstein brought to a deal a “brand of psychological bullying” that could influence his own clients to stay in the bidding and not give up, Forbes said in a 1989 profile. That trait prompted his critics to call him “Bid-’Em-Up Bruce.”

“Bruce brought with him this combination of very, very complete technical knowledge of the law, and at the same time he was very imaginative in the kinds of deals and takeovers that he advised clients on,” Felix Rohatyn, a former managing director of Lazard, told Bloomberg Television yesterday. “It’s a big loss.”

‘Sour-Grapy’

In a January 2008 Portfolio magazine profile, Wasserstein dismissed the notion that his skills were more appropriate for boardroom fights in the 1980s. “That’s wishful thinking by my competitors. All that signifies is that people don’t understand what is going on,” he said. “That’s more sour-grapy.”

Bruce Jay Wasserstein was born on Dec. 25, 1947, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. His mother thought his birth date gave him “Messiah potential,” Wendy Wasserstein told New York magazine in 2002, a year before her brother bought it. She also said that her brother as a child claimed his own “new world,” which he called “Bruceania.”

His father, Morris, was an immigrant from Poland who had started a ribbon company with his brothers.

After the death of his oldest brother, Morris married his widowed sister-in-law, Lola, and became father to their two children, according to Cohan’s book. Together, Morris and Lola had three more children -- Georgette, Bruce and Wendy, the playwright whose works included “The Heidi Chronicles,” which won a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize. She died in 2006, at 55, from complications of lymphoma.

Harvard Law School

The family moved to Manhattan while Bruce Wasserstein was in high school, and he graduated from the McBurney School. He entered the University of Michigan at 16, majoring in political science and ascending to executive editor of the student newspaper. He weighed becoming a journalist.

At Harvard University Law School, he entered a dual-degree program in law and business and graduated in 1971 with a law degree, cum laude, and a master’s in business administration, with high distinction.

Through a summer job at Ralph Nader’s consumer-advocacy organization Public Citizen, Wasserstein met Mark Green, later to become New York City’s public advocate. They co-edited “With Justice for Some: An Indictment of the Law by Young Advocates” and co-wrote “The Closed Enterprise System,” which argued that lax antitrust enforcement led to monopolies and inflated prices.

‘Wasserella’

A 1972 research project on British mergers, which he undertook while studying at Cambridge University, stoked Wasserstein’s interest in business. Back in the U.S. he joined the New York-based law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, then moved in 1977 to First Boston to join the mergers and acquisitions group led by Perella. In 1979 he became Perella’s partner at the helm of M&A.

First Boston earned $75 million in fees from mergers and acquisitions in 1981, triple those of a year before and then considered a Wall Street record, according to Slater.

Wasserstein and Perella left First Boston in 1988 to form the firm that became known as “Wasserella.” Perella left in 1993. He and other partners had grown frustrated that Wasserstein was running the company as a one-man show, people who worked for them told Bloomberg News in 2004.

Dresdner Bank’s $1.56 billion purchase of the firm was a windfall for Wasserstein, who owned more than half of it. He continued to run the renamed firm, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, until its parent, Allianz AG, abandoned plans to spin it off in a public offering.

‘Took Power Very Well’

In 2001, David-Weill, chairman of Lazard Freres, named Wasserstein to run the firm founded by his ancestors in 1848 in New Orleans. Wasserstein persuaded David-Weill to take Lazard public, and the initial offering in May 2005 raised $854.6 million.

“He took power very well,” David-Weill said in a Vanity Fair interview published in April 2005. “He was afraid of sharing power and tried his very best -- and succeeded -- in expelling me. That is his nature. He is a man of solitary power.”

In 2007, Wasserstein donated $25 million to Harvard Law School for construction of a new academic center. It was the second-largest gift in the history of the law school. Wasserstein also was a major donor to the Democratic Party.

His first three marriages ended in divorce. He had three children with his second wife, Chris, and two with his third wife, Claude. His fourth marriage, to Angela Chao, took place early in 2009.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Arnold in Washington at larnold4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 15, 2009 00:00 EDT