Thomas Barkin

Thomas Barkin has served as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond since January 2018. He brings an unusual background to central banking — rather than an academic economics career, he spent over 30 years at McKinsey & Company, where he ultimately served as CFO. This business and consulting background gives Barkin a distinctive perspective on how monetary policy affects businesses at the ground level, and he is known for extensive outreach to businesses across the Fifth Federal Reserve District (Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia). Barkin has been an attentive observer of supply chain disruptions, labor market tightening, and small business pricing dynamics — translating granular business intelligence into monetary policy analysis. His public communications frequently emphasize the importance of returning inflation to target and the transmission of monetary policy through business confidence and investment decisions. He is considered a pragmatic centrist on the FOMC, attentive to both inflation and employment mandate implications.