He is the son of Berthe Haardt and Lazard Frères chairman Pierre David-Weill (1900–1975). During the last year of Nazi occupation, at age 11, he had to hide with his mother and younger sister, in a French village called Béduer (Lot, south-western France). After the war was over, he went to live in New York City with his family.[1] He was educated at the Lycée Français de New York and l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris.