Jerome Powell
American politician and financier. The 16th Chair of the Federal Reserve
Born on February 4, 1953 in Washington, D.C., he earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Princeton University in 1975 and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University in 1979. After finishing law school, he worked as an attorney, and in 1984 joined the Wall Street investment bank Dillon, Read & Co.
Nicholas F. Brady, who had been chairman of Dillon & Reed, was appointed U.S. Secretary of the Treasury by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and continued in the George H. W. Bush administration; in 1990, he brought Powell into the Treasury Department.
In the early 1990s, regarding the Salomon Brothers scandal involving bid-rigging and corruption in national projects, Treasury Secretary Brady sent him as a representative to Senate hearings. After making a name for himself with his outstanding hearing performance, he served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury from April 1992 until the start of Bill Clinton's administration in 1993. He later returned to the Dillon & Reed board, but was invited to The Carlyle Group as a director.
At Carlyle, he generated $900 million in capital gains for the firm through the M&A of the bearing company Rexnord, while personally earning tens of millions of dollars. These hands-on experiences and achievements drew attention to him despite his lack of an Ivy League Ph.D. in economics.
In 2011, he was nominated by the Barack Obama administration as a Federal Reserve governor, and while serving from 2012 he strongly opposed Ben Bernanke's quantitative easing policy. His opposition led to a policy shift, demonstrating his influence within the Fed. He was later nominated by President Donald Trump to replace Janet Yellen as Chair of the Federal Reserve, and has served in that role since February 1, 2018. He is regarded as someone who, despite not being an expert in economic theory, obtained the Fed chairmanship through practical ability and financial performance.
Topics: Fed
Category: Wiki/Person