Sponsored by the Alumni Association of Princeton University

Moderator:

Layna Mosley
Director, Princeton Sovereign Finance Lab; Professor of Politics and International Affairs

Panelists:     

Mark Mazo ’71
Senior Counsel Emeritus, Hogan Lovells US LLC

Joshua Bolten ’76
CEO, Business Roundtable

Peter Orszag ’91
CEO and Chairman, Lazard

Thea Kendler ’96
Partner and Co-Lead, Sanctions and Export Controls, Mayer Brown LLP

MODERATOR

Layna Mosley
Layna Mosley is professor of politics and international affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and the Department of Politics at Princeton University. She founded and directs the Princeton Sovereign Finance Lab, which conducts policy-relevant research on the domestic and international politics related to government borrowing and debt. Mosley also directs the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, and she serves as associate chair of the Department of Politics. Mosley’s research focuses on the politics of the global economy, including finance as well as trade. She is author of two books, “Global Capital and National Governments” (Cambridge University Press) and “Labor Rights and Multinational Production” (Cambridge University Press), as well as dozens of peer-reviewed academic articles. Mosley is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

PANELISTS

Mark Mazo ’71
Mark Mazo was a senior partner at the Hogan Lovells law firm, specializing in cross-border business transactions involving Europe and the Middle East. Working from Washington, D.C., and Paris, Mazo was the senior legal adviser to a prominent Saudi royal family member and recognized, high-profile international investor and philanthropist; Mazo advised on his numerous investments in Europe, the U.S., the U.K. and Asia, and on many of his significant Middle East ventures. Mazo also regularly advised leading European aerospace and technology companies on significant cross-border investments and ventures. He helped establish the Paris office of the legacy Hogan & Hartson law firm, headed its international business transactions practice and served as managing partner of its Abu Dhabi office. A School of Public and International Affairs major at Princeton and Harvard Law School graduate, Mazo is the father of four Princeton graduates and father-in-law of another. 

Joshua Bolten ’76
In his role at Business Roundtable, Joshua Bolten leads an association of more than 200 CEOs of America’s leading companies. Bolten’s 20 years of government service include eight years in the White House under President George W. Bush as chief of staff (2006-09), director of the Office of Management and Budget (2003-06) and deputy chief of staff for policy (2001-03). For the preceding two years, he was policy director of the Bush 2000 presidential campaign. Bolten’s previous private sector experience includes work at Goldman Sachs in London and O’Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C. Bolten received his undergraduate degree from Princeton in 1976 and his law degree from Stanford in 1980. He is a member of the boards of Emerson Electric Co., the Aspen Institute, the ONE Campaign and Princeton University.

Peter Orszag ’91
Peter Orszag has led Lazard, a preeminent global financial advisory and asset management firm, and been a board director since October 2023. With a commitment to strategic growth and innovation, Orszag has raised the firm’s relevance and ambitions to provide the most sophisticated and differentiated advice and investment solutions for clients. Prior to his current role, Orszag served as CEO of Lazard’s financial advisory business and global co-head of its healthcare practice. In the Obama administration, he served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and before that, as the director of the Congressional Budget Office. Orszag has also made notable contributions to academic literature, including hundreds of published articles and several books. He graduated summa cum laude in economics from Princeton and obtained a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics, which he attended as a Marshall Scholar.

Thea Kendler ’96
Thea Kendler is a partner with Mayer Brown, where she leads the law firm’s global sanctions and export controls practice, advising clients on international trade and national security regulatory compliance and federal investigations. Kendler joined Mayer Brown after more than 20 years in U.S. government service, culminating in Senate confirmation as assistant secretary for Export Administration (2021-25) at the Commerce Department. As assistant secretary, she led policymaking and implementation of export controls, with a focus on emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, China and Russia. Earlier in her career, Kendler served as a Justice Department national security prosecutor and as export controls regulatory and enforcement counsel at the Commerce Department. At Princeton, Kendler majored in the School of Public and International Affairs with certificates in Japan and China studies and language study in the Princeton in Ishikawa and Princeton in Beijing programs. She received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.