Eric Mendelsohn has always been drawn to two things: fixing things and growing things.
It’s a philosophy that has shaped his career in corporate restructuring and his belief in the power of individuals to make a difference. For Eric, satisfaction comes from taking on a challenge, figuring out what needs to be done, and making it happen.
“I’ve always gotten excited by rolling up my sleeves and getting involved in something,” he says.
As Managing Director and Co-Head of Capital Solutions and Restructuring Advisory for North America at Mizuho | Greenhill, Eric has spent his career helping people and companies navigate some of the most complicated financial challenges imaginable. Previously, a founding member of Lazard’s Restructuring Group, Eric has advised more than 90 restructuring, M&A, and financing transactions representing approximately $250 billion in value. His work has included major engagements involving General Motors, Chrysler, WorldCom, and Puerto Rico.
For Eric, the appeal of working in restructuring is the opportunity to enter a difficult situation, bring people together, and find a way forward.
“At the start of the process, there’s a whole bunch of uncertainty and a lot of fear,” he explains. “People are worried about whether the company is going to survive, whether people are going to lose jobs.”
In this kind of environment, finding solutions requires both financial expertise and building relationships and trust to help clients navigate uncertainty. Eric describes himself as an optimist who rarely loses faith that a solution can be found.
One experience that brought the human side of his work into particularly sharp focus was the City of Detroit’s historic bankruptcy. Eric’s team represented the city’s pension funds, whose beneficiaries included thousands of retirees facing the possibility of devastating cuts to their retirement income.
The pension fund boards included firefighters, police officers, and other public servants whose livelihoods were at stake. The pension board placed enormous trust in Eric and his colleagues as they worked toward a resolution. Through creative problem-solving and relationships developed with the other parties, Eric’s team helped achieve an outcome he remains particularly proud of. Eric recalls that the chair of the Police and Fire pension board and retired Battalion Chief in particular “was the most appreciative of any client I’ve ever had.”
The experience reinforced something that has motivated him since he entered restructuring: the possibility of making a tangible difference through difficult, consequential work.
Eric credits his parents with instilling that impulse. Wherever they lived, they got involved in their community and looked for ways to make things better. He’s followed their example, including organizing neighbors around local issues and helping people who felt powerless find ways to make their voices heard.
It’s also part of what draws him to CitizensNYC, where he sees that same determination in grassroots leaders taking on challenges in their own neighborhoods.
Providing support to “an individual with an idea, and someone who has the drive to make something happen, I just think that can be really powerful,” Eric says.
A California native who moved to New York City as a teenager in 1985, Eric has developed a deep appreciation for the city’s cultural energy, extraordinary variety, and the communities it brings together. For everything that makes New York special, he believes there’s room for New Yorkers to slow down and look out for one another.
He recalls a friend chasing down a departing New York City bus so an elderly woman struggling to reach the stop wouldn’t be left behind. It was a small act of kindness that stayed with him and deepened his faith in humanity.
For Eric, a stronger New York is one where more people notice those moments and choose to act.
It’s that willingness to take action, whether confronting a complex financial challenge or making a difference in the community, that CitizensNYC is proud to celebrate as we honor Eric at the 2026 All in for New York City Fall Cocktail Reception.
