The president plans to nominate an academic and a Kansas state bank regulator to terms on the Federal Reserve Board, the White House announced Monday. The Fed Board has seven seats, but only three are filled currently.
Nominated to be Fed vice chairman is Richard Clarida of Connecticut. Clarida is nominated both to a four-year term as vice chairman and to serve as a board governor through the remainder of a 14-year term representing Region 1 (Boston, Mass.) that ends Jan. 31, 2022. Clarida is the current Lowell Harriss Professor of Economics at Columbia University, where he has taught since 1988, the White House announcement states. Previously, he taught at Yale University and served as senior staff economist with President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers. He has also served as Treasury’s assistant secretary for economic policy and, since 2006, has been serving as global strategic advisor for PIMCO. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Bureau of Economic Research, Clarida earned his B.S. in economics from the University of Illinois and his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
Michelle Bowman of Kansas has been nominated to the Fed Board as the community bank representative for Region 8 (St. Louis, Mo.) for the remainder of a 14-year term that expires Jan. 31, 2020. Bowman currently serves as the Kansas State Bank Commissioner, a position to which she was the first woman appointed and confirmed by the Kansas State senate, according to the White House announcement. As commissioner, she is the chief regulator for state-chartered banks and non-depository lenders. Bowman previously served as an executive at Farmers and Drovers bank. She has also served on the staff of former Sen. Bob Dole, as counsel for several U.S. House committees, as director of congressional and intergovernmental affairs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and as deputy assistant secretary and policy advisor to Secretary Tom Ridge at the Department of Homeland Security. Bowman graduated from the University of Kansas and received a J.D. from Washburn University School of Law.
Currently, the Fed Board includes Chairman Jerome Powell (board term ending Jan. 31, 2028), Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles (term as vice chairman/supervision ending Oct. 13, 2021), and Gov. Lael Brainard (term ending Jan. 31, 2026).