President & CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Wednesday, March 06, 2019

Field of Interest: Monetary policy under uncertainty and imperfect information; macroeconomics

John C. Williams became the 11th president and chief executive officer of the New York Fed on June 18, 2018. In that capacity, he serves as the vice chairman and a permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

Mr. Williams was previously the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Prior to that, he was the executive vice president and director of research for the San Francisco Fed, which he joined in 2002. Mr. Williams has been a strong advocate for policies to stimulate the economy and get Americans back to work in the wake of the Great Recession. He has produced seminal research on such critical monetary policy issues as the Zero Lower Bound and the neutral rate of interest.

As CEO of the San Francisco Fed, Mr. Williams focused on the development of the next generation of Federal Reserve leaders and fostered a culture of innovation, continuous learning, collaboration and mutual respect. He was a champion of creating a diverse workforce as well as an inclusive culture and under his leadership, the bank made significant strides in achieving greater diversity at all levels, most notably among its senior leadership team.

He began his career in 1994 as an economist at the Board of Governors. Additionally, he served as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers and as a lecturer at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Williams has a PhD in economics from Stanford University, and a Master of Science from the London School of Economics, and an A.B. from the University of California at Berkeley.

Mr. Williams' research focuses on topics, including: monetary policy under uncertainty; innovation; and business cycles.

Mr. Williams is married with two sons.