Michael Zaoui is a founding partner of Zaoui & Co., a company established in 2013 to offer consulting services to a selection of clients on mergers, acquisitions and other financial and strategic transactions, as well as on important investment decisions.
Former Vice President of the Institutional Securities Group of Morgan Stanley, Michael Zaoui began his career in Morgan
Stanley in 1986, in New York.
He led some of the firm’s main corporate transactions on both sides of the Atlantic, including several high profile acquisitions.
In 1990 he moved to London where he was promoted to Managing Director and subsequently Co-Head of European
Mergers and Acquisitions, leading Morgan Stanley M&A to the top of European league tables for several years. Later,
Michael became a member of the élite Strategic Engagement Group, comprising the world’s top investment bankers in the Firm, while still chairing European Mergers and Acquisitions. He retired from the Firm in June 2008.
Prior to Morgan Stanley, Michael was a management consultant with the former Mac Group in London, now part of Cap
Gemini. His banking career began in 1978 with Banque Rothschild in Paris. Michael was educated in France, the UK and the US; he graduated from the Institut d
’Etudes Politiques in Paris, obtained a master’s degree in Law from the
Université de Paris, a DESS doctoral degree in Law from Université Panthéon-Sorbonne and an MBA from Harvard
University. He also completed a post-graduate research program at the London School of Economics.
Michael sits on several corporate boards across Europe, notably International Power, now a subsidiary of GdF-Suez, and
Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso, owner of Italy’s largest newspaper, La Repubblica. He is also an advisory director of
Stanhope Capital, a privately held asset management firm based in London. He has been appointed Conseiller du
Commerce Exterieur de la France in the UK.
Michael is actively involved with his alma mater, Harvard University, serving as a member of the Harvard Business
School Board of Dean’s Advisors and of the Belfer International Council at the Kennedy School of Government. He was the founding Chairman of the HBS European Council. With a broad interest in the arts, Michael is a Governor of the
Southbank Centre, which includes the Royal Festival Hall and the Hayward Gallery; he is also a member of the Council of the Serpentine Gallery.