Jerome Powell

Jerome "Jay" Powell was trained as a lawyer and worked in investment banking at Dillon Read and The Carlyle Group before joining the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in 2012. He was appointed Fed Chairman in 2018 by President Trump, replacing Janet Yellen, and reappointed in 2022 by President Biden. His tenure included the COVID-19 pandemic response — where the Fed rapidly cut rates to near-zero and launched massive quantitative easing and credit facilities — followed by a sharp pivot to aggressive rate hikes in 2022-2023 to combat inflation that reached 40-year highs. His communications style has been notably more accessible to retail audiences than some predecessors, and his Jackson Hole speeches have become market-moving events. As a non-economist leading the Fed, he was frequently scrutinized, but demonstrated adaptability in pivoting quickly as conditions changed. He also oversaw a significant review of the Fed's monetary policy framework, completing the 2020 "Flexible Average Inflation Targeting" framework revision that formalized the Fed's approach to employment and inflation objectives.