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Investment Banker·Behavioral Health

Ian Wijaya

Managing Director, Co-Head North America Healthcare at Lazard

New York, NY, USA

IW
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Why they matter

Co-head of Lazard's healthcare practice with a $250bn+ deal record on payer, PBM, and biopharma megadeals — a top sell-side gatekeeper for platform-scale healthcare exits.

Background

Ian Wijaya is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Lazard's North America Healthcare practice, based in New York. A 20+ year investment banker, he co-founded Lazard's healthcare services practice in 2011 after roles at Greenhill & Co., Goldman Sachs, and Houlihan Lokey, and has advised on more than $250 billion of healthcare corporate finance transactions spanning payers, providers, PBMs, HCIT, and biopharma. He holds an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School and a BA (cum laude) from Dartmouth, and serves on the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Healthcare and as a Council on Foreign Relations Corporate Leader.

Notable deals

  • 2018
    Advised on Aetna's $77bn sale to CVS Health, one of the largest healthcare M&A deals in history
  • 2018
    Advised on Express Scripts' $67bn combination with Cigna
  • 2009
    Advised on Roche's $49bn squeeze-out acquisition of Genentech
  • 2011
    Co-founded Lazard's North America healthcare services M&A practice

Call-prep brief

Background

  • MD and Co-Head, Lazard North America Healthcare (since 2011); prior stints at Greenhill & Co., Goldman Sachs, and Houlihan Lokey — ~20+ years in healthcare banking.
  • Advised on $250bn+ of transactions, including three of the largest healthcare deals in history: Aetna/CVS ($77bn, 2018), Express Scripts/Cigna ($67bn, 2018), and Roche/Genentech ($49bn, 2009).
  • Kellogg MBA, Dartmouth BA; sits on WEF's Global Future Council on Healthcare and CFR.

Current focus

  • Tracking the 2025-26 M&A recovery as bid-ask spreads narrow and rate visibility improves.
  • Vocal on digital health needing demonstrated ROI and "real" healthcare expertise, not just tech wrappers.
  • Has flagged behavioral health and chronic-condition management as sub-sectors still attracting sizable capital despite the broader funding pullback.

What he cares about

  • Quality assets commanding premium multiples vs. weaker assets seeing materially less interest — buyer discipline is back.
  • Payer-provider convergence and value-based care as structural M&A drivers.

Recent moves

  • Guest on HLTH's "Executive Series: Strategic Deal-Making in Healthcare" podcast.
  • Featured in Architect Health's 2025 piece on healthcare M&A trends.

Sensitivities

  • As an active sell-side/buy-side advisor, he cannot discuss live or prospective mandates — frame outreach around market perspective, not deal-sourcing.
  • Confidentiality norms mean he'll speak generally about sector trends before naming specific targets.

Questions to ask

  1. Which behavioral health platforms look most ready for strategic or sponsor-backed consolidation in the next 12-18 months?
  2. What's driving continued investor conviction in behavioral health despite the broader digital health funding pullback — and where's it overheated?
  3. From the Aetna-CVS and Express Scripts-Cigna deals, what integration/antitrust lessons carry over to a multi-site behavioral health roll-up?

Outreach draft

Subject
Behavioral Health Roll-Up: Your Market Read?
Hi Ian, I've followed your work co-leading Lazard's healthcare practice, especially your recent comments on behavioral health continuing to attract capital even as broader digital health funding has cooled. We're evaluating a behavioral health platform roll-up strategy and would value your read on where consolidation is heading — which regional operators or sub-segments (autism/ABA, MAT, outpatient psychiatry) look most primed for strategic or sponsor-backed activity over the next 12-18 months. Would you have 20 minutes for a call in the next couple of weeks? Happy to work around your schedule. Best, [Your Name]

Linked companies

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