Timothy Geithner

Timothy Geithner served as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2003 to 2009, then as US Treasury Secretary under President Obama from 2009 to 2013. He was at the center of the 2008 financial crisis response, including the Bear Stearns rescue, the Lehman Brothers decision, AIG bailout, and the TARP bank recapitalization program. The bank stress tests Geithner designed in 2009 were credited with restoring confidence in the banking system. He wrote "Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises" documenting his decisions. He later became president of Warburg Pincus. His approach during the crisis was often described as "foam the runway" — protecting the financial system's functioning even if it meant that bank shareholders and management faced less accountability than critics wanted. This philosophy generated sustained political criticism but is credited by many economists with preventing a deeper depression. Before the NY Fed, he worked at the Treasury Department on international affairs under both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, including managing the Asian financial crisis response in the late 1990s. He left Warburg Pincus in 2018 to pursue advisory and policy work.