Bruce Wasserstein

SPHERE OF INFLUENCE: Under Wasserstein’s leadership, Lazard—which focuses on giving advice to clients rather than on speculating with its own capital—has avoided the big problems that have ensnared its larger Wall Street investment-banking rivals. And his magazine, New York, added another National Magazine Award to its collection.

RECENT DEALS: Belgian brewer InBev’s $52 billion purchase of Anheuser-Busch, the K.K.R. public offering, and the sale of Bear Stearns to J. P. Morgan Chase.

MAKEOVER BONA FIDES: Wasserstein, once chubby and rumpled, is now slim and crisply dressed.

SPOUSAL RELATIONS: In July the New York Daily News reported that Wasserstein, 60, had separated from third wife Claude and was involved with a “young Asian beauty.”