Jonathan Marc Orszag is an American economist and former government official. He is a Founding Partner of Econic Partners LLC, an economic consulting firm. He previously was a co-founder of

Compass Lexecon Compass Lexecon is a global economic consulting firm founded in 1977 with headquarters in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. It provides analysis of economic issues pertaining to competition practice and competition law for use in legal and regulatory p ...

, LLC. Orszag sold Compass (or Competition Policy Associates) to FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: FCN) in 2006. His work has been recognized in ''The International Who's Who of Competition Economists'' and ''Global Competition Review''. During the

Bill Clinton administration Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

, Orszag served within the National Economic Council (NEC) as an economic policy advisor.

Early life and education

Orszag is the son of Reba Karp, owner of a research and development company, and Steven Orszag, a prominent mathematician and professor at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

.Yale Bulletin: "In memoriam: Steven Alan Orszag"
May 11, 2011 He has two brothers, Michael Orszag and

Peter Orszag Peter Richard Orszag (born December 16, 1968) is an American business executive and former government official. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of Lazard. Announced as Lazard's incoming CEO on May 26, 2023, he assumed the r ...

, the former Director of the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). The office's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, while it also examines agency pro ...

. Orszag's paternal great-grandparents were

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

immigrants from Hungary who immigrated to New York City in 1903.''U.S. News & World Report'': "10 Things You Didn’t Know About Peter Orszag" By Carol S. Hook
November 25, 2008 Orszag graduated from

Phillips Exeter Academy Phillips Exeter Academy (often called Exeter or PEA) is an Independent school, independent, co-educational, college-preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire. Established in 1781, it is America's sixth-oldest boarding school and educates an es ...

in 1991 and received his bachelor's degree in economics from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1996. In 1997, Orszag graduated from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

with an M.Sc. in economic and social history.

Career

Government service and political activity

In 1994, Orszag was appointed to serve as the Special Assistant to the Chief Economist at the

U.S. Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unem ...

. He next moved to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

in 1995 to serve as an Economic Policy Advisor on President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

's National Economic Council. In 1999, the

Corporation for Enterprise Development Prosperity Now, formerly known as the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), is a national nonprofit based in Washington, DC, dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for low-income families and communities in the United States. CFED ...

gave Orszag its leadership award for "forging innovative public policies to expand economic opportunity in America." From 1995 to 1996, Orszag was an economic consultant to

James Carville Chester James Carville Jr. (born October 25, 1944) is an American political consultant, author and occasional actor who has strategized for candidates for public office in the United States and in at least 23 nations abroad. A Democrat, he is a ...

while he wrote the book ''We're Right, They're Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives.'' Orszag served as the Assistant to the Secretary of Commerce and Director of the Office of Policy and Strategic Planning from 1999 to 2000. During the 2000 presidential election, Orszag worked on the Gore-Lieberman campaign as director of policy preparations for the vice presidential debate. From 2000 to 2003, the Governor of California appointed Orszag to both the California Workforce Investment Board and the Governor's Technology Advisory Group. In 2004, Orszag was a commentator for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', writing on economic issues of note in the 2004 presidential election.

Private sector

When Orszag left government, he founded Sebago Associates, the predecessor firm to Compass Lexecon, with his brother

. Orszag is currently a Senior Consultant at Compass Lexecon. Orszag currently serves on the Academic and Regulatory Advisory Council for Coinbase One River Asset Management. Orszag works on

antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

matters, including giving testimony before the European Court of First Instance in its 2007 case, '' Microsoft Corp v. Commission''. Orszag has also worked on a number of large mergers, including

Aetna Aetna Inc. ( ) is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...

Humana Humana Inc. is an American for-profit health insurance company based in Louisville, Kentucky. In 2024, the company ranked 92 on the Fortune 500 list, which made it the highest ranked (by revenues) company based in Kentucky. It is the fourth l ...

, GE/

Electrolux Electrolux AB () is a Swedish Multinational corporation, multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm. It is consistently ranked the world's second largest appliance maker by units sold, after Whirlpool Corporation, Whi ...

Agrium Agrium Inc. was a major retail supplier of agricultural products and services in North America, South America and Australia and a wholesale producer and marketer of all three major agricultural nutrients and a supplier of specialty fertilizers ...

Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, also known as PotashCorp, was a company based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The company merged with Calgary-based Agrium to form Nutrien, in a transaction that closed on January 1, 2018. The company was th ...

Orbitz Orbitz.com is a travel fare aggregator website and travel metasearch engine. The website is owned by Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., a subsidiary of Expedia Group. It is headquartered in the Citigroup Center, Chicago, Illinois. Background Origi ...

Expedia Expedia Inc. is an online travel agency owned by Expedia Group, based in Seattle. The website and mobile app can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruise ships, and vacation packages. Expedia.com was launched on ...

OfficeMax OfficeMax is an American office supplies retailer founded in 1988. As an independent chain, it was the third-largest office supply retailer in the United States. Following a 2013 merger, it is currently a brand and subsidiary of Office Depot. ...

Office Depot The ODP Corporation is an American office supply retailer headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The company operates 922 retail stores in the United States under the Office Depot and OfficeMax brands, as well as e-commerce sites and a business ...

, Staples/Office Depot,

Omnicom Omnicom Group Inc. is an American global media, marketing and corporate communications holding company, headquartered in New York City. Omnicom's branded networks and specialty firms provide services in four disciplines: advertising, customer r ...

Publicis Publicis Groupe S.A. is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. As of 2024, the company is the largest advertising company in the world by revenue. Based in Paris, it is one of the 'Big Four' advertising commpanies, al ...

Entercom Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corp., it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning over 220 radio stations across 47 media ...

/ CBS Radio,

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

Northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

, the

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

search deal,

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

Dresser-Rand Dresser-Rand is an American engineering and manufacturing company owned by Siemens Energy. The company designs, manufactures, and services equipment used in the extraction of petroleum and natural gas. The company was formed in 1986 as a joint ...

, and

Global Crossing Global Crossing Limited was a telecommunications company that provided computer networking services and operated a tier 1 carrier. It maintained a large backbone network and offered peering, virtual private networks, leased lines, audio and vid ...

/ Level 3. He's also served as an expert witness in the California matter, '' Hewlet-Packard Co. v

Oracle Corp Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was the third-largest softwar ...

.''

Personal life

Orszag is married to entertainment journalist Mary Kitchen. The couple has three children. Orszag serves on boards of the Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and the

Tiger Woods Foundation TGR Foundation was established in 1996 by Tiger Woods and his father, Earl Woods, to create and support community-based programs that improve the health, education, and welfare of all children in America. The charity began as a simple junior gol ...

. Orszag serves as a Trustee of

The First Tee First Tee is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the stated goal of improving children's life skills through golf lessons. Based in Ponta Vedra Beach, Florida, the organization claims to teach more than 3.6 million youth annually through progra ...

and was formerly a senior fellow at the

Center for American Progress The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy think tank, research and advocacy organization which presents a Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal viewpoint on Economic policy, economic and social issues. CAP is headquarter ...

. He is also a member of the Good+ Foundation's Fatherhood Leadership Council.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orszag, Jonathan Clinton administration personnel American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Living people Marshall Scholars Alumni of St Cross College, Oxford People from Lexington, Massachusetts Center for American Progress people Economists from Massachusetts 21st-century American economists Law and economics scholars Princeton University alumni Phillips Exeter Academy people Orszag family 1973 births