Kevin Warsh

Kevin Warsh took office as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on May 22, 2026, succeeding Jerome Powell as Fed chair. He was born in April 1970 in Albany, New York and received an AB from Stanford University in 1992 and a JD from Harvard Law School in 1995. Throughout his career, Warsh has maintained a focus on economics and financial markets, combining academic rigor with practical Wall Street experience.

During the Great Recession, Warsh worked closely with Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and future Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and served as an intermediary with Wall Street during the financial crisis. He was previously a member of the Board of Governors from February 24, 2006 to March 31, 2011, and at 35, he was the youngest person to ever serve in that role. His deep market knowledge and connections proved invaluable as he negotiated a way for his former firm Morgan Stanley to survive the meltdown.

Between his two Federal Reserve tenures, Warsh was the Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Economics at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He also was a partner at Duquesne Family Office. Warsh resigned from the Fed in 2011 after expressing concern about the central bank's bond-buying policies and the long-term risks of quantitative easing, including inflation, establishing his intellectual independence and focus on monetary discipline.

Career History

• Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (May 2026–present)
• Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution and lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business (2011–2026)
• Member, Board of Governors and Administrative Governor of the Federal Reserve (2006–2011)
• Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Executive Secretary of the National Economic Council (2002–2006)
• Vice President and Executive Director at Morgan Stanley (1995–2002)

What Kevin Warsh could bring to the Federal Reserve Chairman role: His appointment signals a return to monetary discipline and institutional credibility. Having navigated the 2008 financial crisis from both the Fed and Wall Street perspectives, Warsh brings rare institutional knowledge and market credibility. His consistent intellectual focus on inflation risks and quantitative easing implications positions him to address contemporary economic challenges with a combination of experienced judgment and skepticism toward unconventional policies that characterized his previous Fed tenure.